


Alii Inspiriti

by whatsanapocalae



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Acrophobia, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Anal Fingering, Android Gavin Reed, Arguing, Art Criticism, Blood As Lube, Bottom Upgraded Connor | RK900, Case Fic, Daddy Kink, Deepthroating, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Drowning, Drunken Confessions, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Emotions, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Gunshot Wounds, Human Upgraded Connor | RK900, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Fanart, Kissing, Lace Panties, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Machine Upgraded Connor | RK900, Medical Procedures, Oral Sex, Physical Abuse, Pink Panties, Self Confidence Issues, Sex Toys, Sleep Deprivation, Thirium (Detroit: Become Human), Top Gavin Reed, Trans Character, Trans Gavin Reed, Trans Male Character, Vaginal Fingering, Vibrators
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2020-06-25 14:28:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19747597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsanapocalae/pseuds/whatsanapocalae
Summary: A series of short fics inspired by a variety of fanart. Mostly Reed900. Warning: I don't like DBH, just the characters, so there may be some big inaccuracies. Also some TEW now, but no crossovers





	1. Table of Contents

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Bonesbubs: https://twitter.com/bonesbubs/status/1064552759654006785

1: Table of Contents  
2: (Rated T) Role Reversal: While on a case, Nines and Gavin get separated by only a few minutes and a wall, but it's long enough for Gavin to get his heart hurt. Inspired by https://twitter.com/bonesbubs/status/1064552759654006785  
3: (Rated T) Role Reversal: Human Nines has been pretending to be clumsy instead of hurting for a while but Connor asks Gavin to check in on him, get down on what's actually happening. Nothing is as cruel as humanity but Gavin is willing to get Nines safe and his heart back on its feet. Inspired by: https://twitter.com/bonesbubs/status/1072635268434444289  
4: (Rated T) People around the bullpen think Nines is hard to be around since he has a hard time emoting. When it turns out to affect Nines as well, Gavin tries to help. Inspired by: https://twitter.com/eenocs/status/1022987270121566213?s=19  
5: (Rated E) Stefano and Sebastian hide out in a cafe to heal from their wounds and Stefano takes things a bit further than just a bit of patching up. inspired by: https://twitter.com/Antromeicy/status/1151165688809005057  
6: (Rated M) Sebastian and Stefano hide out in a liquor store, in which Sebastian gets drunk enough to say what he truly thinks about Stefano. Inspired by: https://twitter.com/pinta_3152019/status/1162311298375278594  
7: (Rated T) Due to people wanted to avoid facial recognition software Connor and Nines find themselves fighting unscannable and sometimes unseeable opponents on a rooftop. Inspired by: https://twitter.com/Saya_tsugu/status/1120373246996516874   
8: (Rated T) Nines and Gavin get in a fight with a suspect on a bridge. When Gavin gets thrown off the side Nines goes after him, ignoring how there's a knife in his thirium pump. inspired by https://twitter.com/hyoninnuri/status/1164287190647492608  
9: (Rated T) A sequel to 8: Nines is in repairs and Gavin can't focus on anything else. Inspired by https://twitter.com/hyoninnuri/status/1164405130667520002  
10: (Rated T) There's been a bombing at Nines' apartment, trying to do away with the high concentration of androids there. Gavin comes to his resuce but Nines isn't leaving until everyone is out, knowing there's another bomb waiting to blow. Inspired by https://twitter.com/skxviii/status/1148984810653790209  
11: (Rated T) Gavin's hurt from being the only one not invited to a party, but it was all orchestrated so Nines could be alone with him. Gavin doesn't know what's more of a surprise, that Nines' a deviant or that he wants Gavin.   
12: (Rated T) Nines doesn't charge because he dreams of Gavin dying. It just gets worse when Gavin gets injured on a case. Inspired by: https://twitter.com/ArtsyNeurotic/status/1174977017227272193 but then my hands kept going.  
13: (Rated E) Nines buys some pretty panties for Gavin but he's afraid that Gavin won't want to dom or top him. Inspired by https://twitter.com/s_peachxv/status/1163627872281616386  
14: (Rated T) Nines and Gavin get separated for only a few hours but it's enough time for a pair of serial android killers to take Nines apart. Inspired by https://twitter.com/MRearrea/status/1232759798229278720?s=20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was getting too big for the summary so here's hoping ao3 will let me insert a chapter in the beginning.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t hard to find him, it wasn’t hard to find anything. The murder weapon had been left in the victim and the victim had been left in the kitchen. It was a simple case. It was easy. There were prints everywhere and Gavin had the name and address of the suspect in mere minutes. It should have been a relief, how easy it was, but it made Nines uncomfortable, all of his muscles tightening as he looked around the room. It was easy. It was just too easy. 

“You hear that, meat sack?” Gavin had rolled his eyes and left without another word, hands shoved into his pockets. Nines watched him go, couldn’t hear anything, his own thoughts clouding his judgment. There had to be something, some reason that this was all laid out for them. It was as if the suspect wanted to be caught. It was like this whole thing was a trap. 

Then he did hear it, a gruff yell, something hard and sturdy crashing down, a lot of swearing. He knew what he had to do, he knew his objective. His mind went silent when his mission became clear. He ran after Gavin, drawing his gun as he did. 

The path was blocked by a bookshelf, papers and books cascaded to the floor. It was wide too, almost enough to block his sight of what was happening on the other side. He could see the suspect, sweaty and panicked, but also with conviction in his stance. In one hand he was holding a tire iron. It was already dripping blue, not just from the victim, but from a new source. He couldn’t see Gavin. 

“Gavin?” he called out the androids name, getting on his tip toes, trying to look down at him. He cursed Cyberlife for making him so short, it was hard enough to see him at this angle, if he was injured it would be even harder. 

“I suggest you back away, officer,” Jeff stepped forward, smirking, trying to hide how he was shaking. “This doesn’t concern a good human like yourself.”

“Is that why you’re doing this?” Nines didn’t move, didn’t back away. He could rightfully interfere but talking made Jeff pause a moment. “You’re trying to prove a point against the androids? Or is this vengeance? I understand, you must of had a good job and a perfect life, only to lose it to Cyberlife. It happened to a lot of us. Some of us still fear that we will be proven inefficient and be replaced. Murdering a few androids isn’t going to alter anything though, you must be aware of that.”

“It took my job!” Jeff bellowed and he was moving again, drawing closer, raising the tire iron. “I lost everything! My wife, the kids! My whole life went down the drain! I didn’t want to be a bum! I didn’t want to be a nobody! You’re worried this thing is going to replace you?” He brought the tire iron down and Nines could hear a sickening crack, like the side of a car being smashed into, not like the breaking of bones, and he could hear Gavin cursing more, the sound pained and uncharacteristically quiet. Jeff must have made the first hit really count then, if Gavin wasn’t beating him to a pulp right now. 

“Jeff,” Nines ordered and the tone in his voice must have done something because Jeff was looking up at him now. “You are not destroying a machine right now. You are assaulting an officer of the DPD, one Detective Gavin Reed.”

“I’m freeing you!” Jeff argued, a bit of mania creeping into his voice, “There’s no need to be afraid if they’re gone! No need to get iced, to try to forget!” 

“I’m going to move this bookshelf out of the way, and then I’m going to come into the room. You will be arrested for the murder of the TR400 unit, armed assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, and damaging police property. I will then read you your rights and take you to the station for processing, do you understand?”

“Fuck you!” Jeff spat out and then he was down on his knees and Nines couldn’t see what he was doing. He could hear Gavin though, struggling, heels kicking against the floor, fighting back as best he could. 

Nines didn’t wait for them to get out of the way. He shoved against the bookshelf. It groaned and fought against him, huge, solid wood, and at the wrong angle. The TR400 had most likely been the one to get it into the house. There was no way anyone else was strong enough to. 

It was enough time for Jeff to pull away from Gavin, who made a terrible whining sound, and run off, not too quickly as he was a bit more out of shape than could be considered healthy. Normally Gavin would be on his feet, would be after the perp, would have him down in seconds, and Nines would have to stop him from beating the man to death. This time though, he was just lying there, doing nothing, but whimpering softly, as Nines pushed his way through. 

“Nines?” he asked, the pain obvious in his throat, as Nines finally squeezed himself into the room. 

“Shit!” Nines growled, looking down and then falling to his knees at Gavin’s side. There was blue on his face, more than usual, some coming from a spot next to his eye, more spurting from his nose and dribbling down his lip. That was nowhere near the worst of it, a large crack in the back of his head on the opposite side, the skin peeled back to display the damaged chassis. There was more blue in his side, oozing through the white of his jacket, dripping down his hand. It hadn’t even been that much time but Jeff had done a lot of damage already. 

“You gonna stand there and stare dipshit?” It came out as a rattling whisper, “Or are you gonna get that bastard? Phcker stole my heart.”

Nines’ eyes tracked over to the middle of Gavin’s chest. His shirt had been pulled up, out of the way, and there was more thirium pumping out of the wide open hole in his chest, dribbling out and down his deceptively soft abdomen. The pump was gone. 

“How much time?” Nines started over to the door, following Jeff, leaving Gavin alone to bleed out.

“I’m a tough guy,” Gavin weakly smirked, though his LED was a bright red. “I’ve got a whole 2 minutes.”

Two minutes. He had to catch up with Jeff, wrestle the pump back from him, arrest him, and get back to Gavin in two minutes. He could do that. 

He was sprinting through the building, going down the stairs three at a time, launching himself forward by his grip on the railing. He could follow Jeff without much of an issue, there was a blue trail leading him. 

The man was leaning against a wall, panting, his grip on the tire iron loose in his hold. Not much of a chase then, at least. Nines hadn’t been aiming before but he was now, gun drawn and pointing at the man’s back as he walked towards him, silent and terrifying. He knew that he was intimidating and now, he needed that more than ever. 

“The thirium pump,” Nines stated, his voice devoid of any emotion. He couldn’t betray how panicked he was feeling, how much power this small stupid man had over him in this moment. “You will place it and your weapon on the ground then put your hands on your head, slowly.”

“You don’t think you’re going to come out of this on top, do you?” Jeff wheezed, even while he did as he was told. “You’re emotions, your human body, both are compromising. They’re going to want an android over you. They always want androids over us.”

Nines didn’t care. He pulled out the cuffs, walking up to the man, careful. He was unarmed but Nines wasn’t stupid, he could imagine more than a dozen ways that Jeff would turn on him, try to get the upper hand, even now. Jeff didn’t do any of that. He just stood still, allowed Nines to manhandle him, cuff him and read him his rights in a far too fast manner. With that done he grabbed the thirium pump and made his way back up the stairs. 

Gavin was lying in a pool of his own blood, eyes closed, the LED cycling between red and black. Nines dashed to his side, pulling his shirt up further and sliding the pump into his chest, turning it until it clicked. He was expecting Gavin’s eyes to snap open, for him to push himself up to a sitting position, to call him a dumbass, to act as if there had never been an issue. He was still just lying there, eyes closed, not moving, his LED slowly fading in and out from black to red, as if he was buffering. 

Nines didn’t like emotions. They were messy and inconvenient and he always made a mess of them. When he allowed them to surface they took him over. He was shaking, as he grabbed Gavin, pulling him up and against his chest, one arm wrapped around the androids back, the other coming up to cradle his jaw. Two fingers pressed against his neck but there was no pulse to look for. There was a panic, a hard rush of pain, like a rock was lodged in his veins, traveling up from his gut, into his stomach. His eyes were burning. He wanted to touch and he was drowning, suffocating, under this. Gavin wasn’t waking up. He hadn’t been timing it. Had he been too late? He thought he’d been fast enough but Gavin may have been exaggerating the amount of time that he had. 

“Come on.” Nine’s pulled Gavin closer, all but burying his face in Gavin’s neck. “Come one, come on! Shit, you better not leave me like this.”

There was no response, no motion. Nines pulled him closer. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. He wouldn’t let them fall. He wouldn’t let himself be so weak as to cry. That would mean that he cared and that wasn’t something that he could admit to himself yet. 

He knew that he was holding Gavin, cradling him in a way that the android would despise him for, that there was a good chance that Gavin would never talk to him again after this, but for now he could do nothing but embrace him, run his fingers through the hair that hadn’t faded away to reveal the truth of what Gavin was. He was whispering to him, small little pleads, and he wasn’t even paying attention to what they were. 

“I got it for you, I got it for you. You can’t die on me. I was, fuck. I was starting to trust you, to rely on you. I keep everyone out, you know I do, but you were finally worming your way in. If you die now what’s going to become of that hole you made in me?”

Another loop, black and red. Even with the pump in place Gavin had lost a lot of thirium and that was just as much of a concern. Nines, for once, didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know who to call. He kept running his hand along Gavin’s scalp as he choked on a sob. 

“Wasn’t expected,” a weak sound, a sputtering cough, and Nines was pulling away, looking at the androids heavily lidded eyes and blue tinged skin. “wasn’t expecting you to wax poetic.”

“You bastard!” Nines laughed, a nervous giddiness growing in his chest, breaking the rock in his chest apart. A grin that he would always deny spread on his face as he saw Gavin, not well but alive, glaring at him. 

“Ooo, I wasn’t expecting language. You got a pottymouth while I was gone?” 

“I’m allowed, I thought you were going to die.”

Gavin’s features softened and his eyes moved, taking in their positions. His blue stained hand came up and gripped at Nines’ waist before he could let go, push Gavin away to pretend that he hadn’t been clinging to him. “I was. Good work.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by: https://twitter.com/bonesbubs/status/1072635268434444289

It was a rough job, it would be unusual if there was a day in which anyone not assigned to desk duty to be free of bruises. Scrapes and bandages were as common as cups of coffee and, while the androids were able to heal fast enough that most marks would be gone in a matter of hours, even they weren’t free of such wear. 

Gavin was sitting at his desk, glaring at the empty seat across from him. It was uncommon that Nines would be late to work but this was a full fifteen minutes. They had gotten really banged up the night before, the human had gotten shoved through a window, so he had to assume that Nines had called out or was, at the very least, sleeping it off. It wasn’t like he’d fallen any, just banged his spine on the railing outside, but there were a lot of small gashes, twinkling shards shoved deep. He’d said no to a hospital visit though, as well as any of the care his brother tried to give him. He just took care of it on his own. 

Gavin’s head swiveled, the rest of him stuck in place, as the door opened and the detective stumbled in. He wore a long black coat and tight black turtleneck and more bandages than could be hidden under the material. There were bandages on his face, one poking up from under the high neck of his shirt, and soft wrapped around his fingers. The bags under his eyes were even darker than usual and he was cradling a cup of coffee as if the paper were the holy grail itself. He glared at everyone he passed as he went to his seat and fell into it. There were a few glares, the strongest coming from Connor, but he ignored them all. 

“So you finally decided to show your blocky head,” Gavin gritted out through a sneer. “Thought you’d finally kicked it.”

He didn’t take off his jacket. He dug out a bottle of pills, pouring some high potency caffeine into his hand before chasing it down with his coffee. “Not in the mood,” he said, even less emotional than usual. “Kind of wishing I did.” 

The sneer dropped from Gavin’s lips. As much as he didn’t agree with working along the human, who had shown himself as being clumsier and more apt to getting himself hurt than most, he still had his programming to tell him not to push it. Human life was paramount and Nines didn’t sound like he was joking really. 

“You still feeling like shit?”

“Worse than yesterday.”

“It always gets worse before it can get better.”

Nines’ mouth was in a straight line. He didn’t make eye contact with Gavin. He played with the engagement ring on his finger, a nervous tick that Gavin had noticed early on. He wore a few rings but that was the only one that he didn’t take off, that didn’t get tossed and juggled or rolled along knuckles as Nines thought. 

“You better be more careful,” Gavin suggested, “don’t want to leave that girl of yours all alone do you?” 

“Hmm,” Nines grit out around another mouthful of coffee. He smelled like cigarettes. 

When Gavin took a quick scan of the room he noticed Connor, sitting perfectly straight at his desk, eyes soft with concern as he stared at Nines. 

\---

“No,” Gavin shoved Connor’s shoulder, offsetting him, making him take a few steps back. “Guy might be a dick and a half but lines exist for a goddamn reason and I’m not crossing them.”

“It’s more than a few bits of glass!” Connor shoved back, with his words instead of his hands. “You know he won’t go to a doctor, but there’s something wrong here, you have to see that.”

Gavin shook his head, chewing on his lip. “If you care so much, why don’t you just ask him?” 

Connor’s hands were in fists at his sides. His head was down, his gaze glossy with wetness. “I have, trust me. He used to be so elegant, so sure of himself, I can’t place when but he suddenly lost all of that and when I asked he kept me out. There’s something wrong, not just right now, though I know it’s more than a few cuts, but it’s been wrong for a long time now.”

“Is that your amazing detective mind at work? Something is wrong?” 

That got Connor to glare at him with those big brown eyes. “He’s your partner. You should care if he’s alright.”

“And he’s your brother. You do something. I’m not scanning him.”

Connor lit a cigarette, taking a deep drag, running a hand through his hair as he looked away from Gavin, out onto the rest of Detroit. There was a shadow in him, some darkness that he couldn’t get out. Gavin didn’t want to be there for when it broke free. He turned and went to the stairs, leaving Connor and the roof behind. 

\---

The railing had hit Nines in the spine, right across the lumbar. That would have bruised badly, hurt like a bitch, but that wasn’t what this was. Nines had been using the coffee as a shield, to hide the fact that he was cradling his ribs. Now that he was out of coffee, pulling himself up, wincing, dragging himself to the break room for a refill, it was obvious that every move hurt. Gavin watched him, not scanning, not using any android tricks to figure out what had happened, but putting his brain and detective training to proper use. 

Nines was hiding the fact that he was hurting, which led to why he didn’t like hospitals. He didn’t want anyone to know, didn’t want anyone to ask about it. The damage wasn’t from the crime scene or from any other recent incident. He was clumsy now, when he used to be sure of his footing, as if he was acting out evidence that he hurt himself. When asked about his personal life he was short and curt, to the point, but he always had something positive to say about Denise, as if he was protecting her honor. Gavin had a lot of information in his head, a lot of past cases to study that had similar features. It was easy to figure out what was happening. 

Connor didn’t know, he believed his brother’s stand offish attitude, the way he was so painfully in love with his fiancee, the fact that he kept everyone else out. It was clear to an outsider, but for someone who was close, it was impossible to see. 

He waited half an hour between the time that Nines left to pack up some files and follow him to his apartment. He’d never been there before but it wasn’t hard to find, he knew the address from Nines’ file anyway. Taking a taxi just made everything easier, gave him time to think up what he wanted to say. It also left him with some time to think about what he was doing. 

He didn’t like humans. He didn’t have a good relationship with Nines and, if anyone asked he’d say that he didn’t like him either. What did it matter what humans did to one another, anyway. As long as he wasn’t involved they could tear each other apart and he wouldn’t have a single instability. He did like Nines though. He was smart and analytical and hard as fuck to read, making Gavin loud and obvious just by proximity. He was good at his job and, when he was pressed to be, he could be genuinely kind. It was the kind of kindness that came easy but was hidden away, as if it could be used against him. Considering what Gavin was doing, he’d guess that it had been. 

They were partners. He couldn’t do his job if Nines was wounded for no reason. That was the logic of it. He could pretend it was the only one. 

The complex was big and it was nice enough on the outside but in surprisingly poor condition on the inside. It wasn’t anything that would raise flags in humans but Gavin could see the black mold growing in the windowsills and the thick layer of cigarette smoke not only dyed the wallpaper but felt tacky against Gavin’s sensors. 

He could hear everything. No one here was quiet. There were dogs barking, children crying, food burning, arguments and love being made. Humans were messy and self destructive. This wasn’t the sort of place that he’d imagine Nines living on his own terms. 

Another argument, though after a moment of listening, Gavin could tell that this one was one sided. He adjusted his posture, stopping in front of the door, clutching at the folder at his side. Everything inside of him told him to break down that door, a thousand different scenarios building in his mind in under a minute, none of them good. 

He knocked. Everything went quiet. 

The door opened and he looked down, finding a blonde woman of small stature, without much muscle mass or intimidation. Her smile was more plastic than anything that Gavin was made of. She was pretty, according to ratios and studies. Even if Nines had told anyone what was happening, they wouldn’t believe him if they saw her. He was a big strong man, he should have been able to defend himself, especially from someone so small, that’s what they would have thought. 

She noted the blue of his jacket, his model number, and her cold brown eyes met the yellow LED on his temple. The smile fell, replaced with a disgusted smirk. She crossed her arms and turned back to the room behind her, “Hey, Dick, that plastic shit from work is here. You wanna deal with it? It’s creeping me out.”

Gavin fought the urge to emote, to act like the deviant that he was. He was trying to fit in, be a nice little android, not raise alarms. Her hatred was visceral. He remembered when he met Nines, how he’d thought that the man hated androids, how well Nines had played the part, and how slowly that had faded. He could guess that his dislike was worse than most because of Denise. 

She took a step back as Nines took her place, leaning heavily in the doorway. He didn’t look like anyone that Gavin knew. His hair was ruffled and mussed, his skin pale and clammy. His blue gray eyes were darting around, half on Gavin, half on his fiancee. He was wearing a baggy t-shirt that hung in a way that revealed his jutting collar bones, the bandages and, worse, the bruises, around his throat, and revealed more bandages and bruises down his arms. One of his wrists was an angry red, wherever it wasn’t black and blue from bruising. 

“What are you doing here?” Nines said, his voice grimmer, angrier, and more hollow than Gavin had ever heard it. Again, putting on a show. 

Gavin put on a smile that he hoped would be read as nice and held up the folder. “The case from Monday, I believe I may have come up with some theories on it. I was hoping that I could come in and talk to you about it.”

Nines’ eyebrows furrowed. “Why are you talking like that?”

Gavin took a step forward, practically inviting himself into the apartment. Nines backed up, letting him in, though it was more on instinct than anything. “I am talking like a normal, boring ass android. Cyberlife thought it would help us be better liked. Is it working?”

Nines shook his head once. “What do you think?”

“I think, Oo! A table!” Gavin brushed his way into the apartment, setting his folder down on the table. It was clean. Everything was clean. With the way that the rest of the complex was, he was expecting the apartment itself to either be a den of depression or a mess for other reasons. He took a quick scan of the surroundings, no where near as in depth as what he’d do at a crime scene, even though he knew that this was one. There was a little bit of dust, invisible to the human eye, and two dirty dishes in the kitchen. There was a bit of broken glass embedded in the carpet, not deep enough to have been there for very long but deep enough that there had been an attempt to vacuum it up. 

He opened the folder and pulled out the documents. He was glad he actually had been thinking of the case, because it was easy to talk about, even with Nines so uncomfortable at his side and Denise standing behind them, blurting out comments every once in a while. Most of them were kind in the sickening lovey-dovey way but there were some that were downright cruel, either to Nines or to Gavin. Those sat on the idea of Gavin being Nines’ replacement or that the fact that he needed help was why he wasn’t a Lieutenant yet. 

“Really, Dick, you’re such a waste of police time, couldn’t your little toy do all this for you?” 

Gavin threw a glare her way and she seemed more than a little bit surprised at how human he could be. Nines didn’t even respond to her, though his eyes were started to get wet and he chewed on the dried skin of his lip. 

A red alert joined the objectives in Gavin’s UI: Remove Richard Anderson from the scene. That was an objective he wouldn’t fight against. 

[Gavnyan 7:36pm] You got a spare room, right?

He kept talking over his theory, pretending that he wasn’t texting Connor and recording everything that Denise was saying. 

[Detective Twink 7:40pm] Yeah why? 

[Gavnyan 7:40pm] Big bad meatbag needs a place to sleep for the next couple forever and he’s not doing it here. 

[Detective Twink 7:40pm] Nines? What’s going on?

Gavin reached out, casual, slow, and placed his hand on top of Nines’. The human immediately froze as Gavin’s fingertips rested on the horribly finger shaped bruises on his wrist. 

“You keep talking about Nines getting replaced,” Gavin said, his voice far more calm and steady than he was feeling. “You should be more worried about yourself.”

“What?” Denise growled from her place. 

[Gavnyan 7:41pm] I’m about to ruin this woman’s whole career.

[Detective Twink 7:41pm] What are you talking about?

Gavin stood up, ignoring all of the papers, and turned to her. “I’m done, okay? I’m sitting here, pretending everything’s fine and dandy and like I don’t want to beat your face in and that’s hard enough, but having you treat Nines like shit right in front of me? You’re seriously asking for my fist in your face right now.”

She impressed him with the way that she squared off, tossing her blonde hair and getting into an aggressive position. He hadn’t been broken down over time like Nines had, but he could imagine how after months of verbal abuse her turning physical would work. 

“Please,” Nines tugged on his hand a little bit, trying to get Gavin’s attention and free himself at the same time. “It’s fine. It’s just a joke. Come on, you say stuff like that all the time.”

He had. He wasn’t going to ever again. 

Gavin slid the ring off of Nines’ finger. He wanted to throw it at her like he was in some romcom, but instead he just released Nines, walked up to her, and placed the ring on the counter next to her. 

“You’re never going to talk to Nines like that again. You’re never going to see him again, if I have anything to say about it.” 

She laughed nervously. “Says you? You’re just a heap of plastic! You can’t pretend you hold any power here.” 

He cracked his neck in both directions before wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her, swinging her so that she was under his arm. She squealed in surprised anger. She was pelting him with her fists, kicking out with her feet, but he didn’t care. He had a job to do. 

Nines was following him, silent and shaking, as he carried Denise out onto the little porch and deposited her there, only to lock the sliding glass door before she could follow him back in. 

“What are you doing?” Nines was frazzled, panicked. His voice was still steady, but there was no way Gavin couldn’t see how he sweat, how to quaked, how he was staring out there. 

“I’m getting you out of here. Pack your things.” 

Denise was screaming insults at him, at both of them. Nines was just standing there, all six foot two of him, looking absolutely tiny. He was staring out at her. “I can’t leave. She’ll kill me.”

Gavin rolled his eyes and took Nines’ hand, leading him towards the bedroom. “No she won’t. Not as long as I’m here.” 

\---

Nines had rather little, just some clothes and books and electronics. He packed quickly, once Gavin started to do it for him, all of it fitting in an old gym bag and two grocery bags. Denise was yelling at a neighbor by the time they were leaving, probably getting someone to get the door open for her. Gavin kept a hand on Nines all the while, keeping his attention off of Denise and on the task at hand, leading him out of the apartment and down the stairs and outside. 

His jacket hid a lot of the damage but his neck was still fairly obvious. Connor paled as he saw it, as he understood everything that he’d missed. Nines didn’t want to press charges but Connor did and Gavin had what she said and a few photographs of the visible damage to indite her with. 

There was nothing in the spare room aside from a closet and a bed but when Nines sat n it he just sort of slumped, all of the tension in him unfolding. He wasn’t paying attention to anything, whatever was said to him didn’t land. Gavin brought in a chair from the table and then gave him some space. He could hear Nines try not to shatter as he stood in the living room, discussing what had happened with Connor. They could stay as long as they needed to, the both of them. Gavin didn’t know what to say to that but he knew he would have demanded it if it weren’t offered. 

He didn’t need to sleep. He didn’t even need to enter stasis more than once every five days. Still, he sat in the chair next to Nines’ bed, half conscious as the man slept. He could have taken the couch, he probably should have. Staying here would be creepy at the very best. He didn’t want to be that far away from Nines though, not if he was needed. 

And he was. At 4:37am Nines turned onto his side, upsetting the damage to his ribs. He tightened in response, making it all worse, and then he was awake, heaving in deeps breathes. The room flickered red with Gavin’s attention, as he got up from the chair and moved to the bed, forcing Nines to lie down flat with the most gentle of touches he could muster. 

He could see easily in the dark could see how blown Nines’ pupils were, the only light in the room coming from Gavin’s LED. He flinched as Gavin ran a thumb over his jaw. 

“She’s right, isn’t she?” Nines’ voice was pinched. “I’m a failure. I couldn’t even get away from her. I’m that pathetic.” 

Gavin adjusted their positions on the bed, helped Nines sit up. Nies should have been asleep, he was exhausted, but he was going to have time to sleep tomorrow. Connor had already agreed to call in on Nines’ behalf to get him some time off. He still looked pale, still looked uncertain, looked so little like Nines that it made Gavin uncertain of what he was doing. He knew though, that what he was doing was the right thing, possibly for the first time. 

“You’re not pathetic,” he corrected, “And you’re not pathetic. Look, I’m not a nice guy, so don’t make me say this shit twice. Any experience I have gets set into my programming, changes the way that I react in the future. That’s pretty damn human, and I agree that it’s stupid to be made that way. But what I’m saying is that I get it. I was programmed a certain way and that bitch fucking, she programmed you through experiences and words.”

Nines leaned against Gavin’s shoulder, head against his neck. “I feel strange,” he admitted. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s too much.”

Gavin wrapped an arm around Nines’ shoulders, saying with the action that it was alright, that Nines could take his time, that they didn’t have to move from that spot. He hoped that Nines understood that too. 

Nines fiddled with his finger, with the tan line from where his engagement ring had been. Gavin put his hand on Nines’ arm, stilling him for the moment. He stared forward, at the closet door. The door hadn’t done anything against him but he was still glaring at it as if it were Denise herself. Part of him wanted her to come after them, so he could show her what he was capable of to take care of his partner. And that feeling was strange too. He couldn’t place when he started to care about Nines. 

“Give it time,” he advised, as if he had any experience in these things. “Give it time.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by: https://twitter.com/eenocs/status/1022987270121566213?s=19

Three months and there’d been no progress with the bullpen. Gavin was sitting there, arms crossed over his chest, watching as the rest of the force did as they always did when the big scary android showed up. Conversations paused as people stared, looking over six feet and two inches of plastic, wondering if there was more blue on him than usual, maybe a splash of red. They were all expecting RK900 to snap, to kill someone, human or android. They all knew what he was, what he was programmed to be. They saw a monster waiting to come out. They didn’t see how his gaze went to the floor, how he didn’t initiate conversations, or how he was consistently subservient towards them. They couldn’t see that, they didn’t give him a chance to show it. 

Gavin had been with them at first, had hated the lump of plastic as he did all of the androids, but he’d spent the last three months learning how human the deviants really were. RK900 wasn’t deviant though. He couldn’t be. That didn’t change things though, Gavin still could see that the android had emotions, that he had drives and phobias, grown from his experiences. He’d noticed it with Connor too, before he deviated, but it was being so close to RK900 that he knew that he was more human than he seemed. 

“Hey Tin Can,” Gavin gave him a wonky smile that he knew the android wouldn’t return. He looked like he had something that he wanted to say, but he couldn’t be the first to speak. 

“Detective Reed,” Rk900 stated in that cold way of his as he took his seat in the chair across from his. “I checked out Merther’s as requested. I believe I have found a few leads that you may be interested in.”

Gavin cocked his head. This had to be good. Merther’s was a used android shop that had been broken into the night before, Andrew Merther murdered in the backroom. RK900’s LED was yellow and his eyes were even more distant than usual. It had to be strange, going into a shop that sold parts of you. Gavin assumed it was like going into an organ cooler. He hadn’t requested him go there, not alone anyway. 

“Spill that tea, Destructo.”

No change in RK900’s expression, even as the LED spun. “I do not have any tea to spill Detective. Procuring some for such a task is illogical.” 

Gavin rolled his eyes. “It’s an expression. Don’t worry about it, just tell me what you found.”

RK900 did so, his words slow and too eloquent, jargon mixed in with the mundane. It was like listening to the world’s most monotone man reading a textbook. He was pretty though and Gavin found himself staring which was close enough to listening anyway. At no point did an expression flicker over RK900’s features, or his body move in any way, no nervous ticks or calibrations. It was creepy. It was inhuman. 

“Okay, let’s check it out,” Gavin said, getting to his feet, assuming that a location or a person had been stated. 

“I’m just going to grab a coffee real quick.”

RK900 stayed where he was, let Gavin do what he needed. His LED was still yellow, as it was most of the time, but he didn’t mention any stressors. He noticed a few people still giving RK900 the side eye as he left the vicinity, heard a couple of snickers and whispered rumors. He ignored them all. 

He went to the coffee machine, sighed, tried to lower his shoulders, remove some of the tension in them. He wasn’t alone though, Hartnett had followed him in there. Hartnett was a good cop and half of a decent person. The other half was a combination of donuts and cynicism. If there was one thing that Gavin really liked about him, it was the fact that he made Gavin feel tall. 

He leaned an elbow on the counter, resting his weight on it heavily. “What are you doing Gavs?” there was a hint of cruelty in his tone, but that was how people talked to him if they decided to at all. It was either that or the kind of ass kissing that made him want to yell and punch and be the asshole they were afraid of. “We all thought you’d scare that plastic creep off by now. You’re losing your touch.”

That wasn’t right. Hartnett wasn’t a dick. That was Gavin’s job. “I don’t mind him being around, Gavin explained, “He doesn’t hide donuts in his desk drawer before the rest of us can have a chance to get breakfast.”

Hartnett’s red face went even more red. “He? You really are losing your touch.”

“What do you have against him, anyway?” Gavin pulled his steaming cup from the machine and opened the fridge looking for the creamer. He wasn’t big on it, but it would cool it down enough for him to drink it. 

“It’s not human. It’s not alive at all, I mean look at it. It’s all weird and plastic and terrifying.” Gavin did look at him, following Hartnett’s gaze out of the breakroom and back to their pair of desks. RK900 was still sitting there, though now he was working on same report or other with his hand interfacing with the computer screen. His LED was swirling red. “The other ones, they got better, they can actually talk and shit. That one though? He’s all messed up. We’re all expecting him to go full terminator on us and not the good terminator.”

“He’s not that messed up,” Gavin brought the cup to his lips and sneered. It was hazelnut creamer. He couldn’t think of a worse choice. “You know he can’t deviate.”

“Exactly, he was programmed to be a bloodthirsty killer. You know as well as I do that that programming is going to bite us all one day.”

“If it does you better be ready for it.” Gavin was done with this conversation. “The fat guys always get caught first.” 

He didn’t wait for a response. He stomped off, feeling an anger boiling inside of him, one that he used to wear on his sleeve, one that used to be ever present. It had faded away and he didn’t know if that was because he was now sleeping a decent five hours a night or because there was someone else in the bullpen that people were hating more than him. Either way it was because of RK900. 

“You ready to go?” Gavin asked, taking another sip of his awful coffee. Seriously, he wanted to find out whoever got hazelnut creamer and have a sparring match. It had been a long time since he’d punched something, at least two months. 

“Of course,” RK900 stated and unfolded from his chair. 

He allowed Gavin to lead him out of the building and to his old pos car. They got in on their appropriate sides and Gavin asked him for the address, only to get the full GPS instructions on how to get there. 

When they reached a segment of road that was eight miles and then a left turn on blahdiblah blah road, Gavin glanced at RK900. The LED was still swirling, mostly yellow again but with a hint of red flashing. 

“Penny for your thoughts?”

RK900 didn’t move. Not one finger twitched. It was like having a mannequin in the passenger seat so Gavin could use the carpool lane. “Pennies stopped being manufactured in 2021 due to the cost of copper.”

“You know what I mean, dipshit.” The same casual insults but they’d softened one day when RK900’s LED was spiralling red on a case and, while there was no external sign that there was an issue, Connor had to rush over and put a hand on him, asking to interface, speaking in that weird telepathic way. It wasn’t until RK900’s LED was spinning yellow with a trace of blue that Connor pulled him aside and told him that the stress from the case was bad and that Gavin’s constant belittlement was getting him close to shutting down. He hadn’t even realized that RK900 could feel stressed before that. There had been no sign. 

You defended me to Officer Hartnett,” RK900 said. “In a small way, when you could have agreed. From early understandings of your behavior and history I was expecting you to agree.”

Of course he’d heard that, he was superman without the flight or the heat rays or the kryptonite. That was why his LED was so red. 

“Don’t mention it.”

RK900 didn’t mention it. He didn’t mention anything. His mouth was clamped shut, as if Gavin had ordered him to be quiet. Gavin hated it. They almost missed the turn because of how quiet and uncertain RK900 said the eight miles were over. That must have been how he’d taken it, anyway. 

Gavin felt an odd urge, to say something nice, to reach out, to touch the android. He didn’t. He thought instead. There had to be something that would help RK900 be more likable. 

They got to their location. Gavin should have paid more attention to what RK900 had said. It was a warehouse, big and open and hard to hide in. They were going to have to talk to people, there were a few of them loitering about, on break from the job. RK900 got out of the car after him, scanning the area, eyes landing on each human and spinning his LED as he tried to decide which they should talk to first. He was big and intimidating, just standing there. Other cops were afraid of him, civilians were sometimes terrified. 

It gave him a bit of an idea though. 

He went to the android, whose LED started to spin faster at his proximity, and reached up, taking a cheek in either hand. He had to get on his tip toes in order to look at him the way that he wanted to. 

“Eye contact.”

RK900’s cold blue eyes snapped to his and he suddenly felt like he was being studied, like he was an insect under such a gaze. But he’d asked for it and he knew what he was doing or, at least, he was pretending that he did. 

His thumbs went to RK900’s mouth, one on either side of those perfect lips. “Emote more, dipshit,” he instructed, pulling the sides wide and pushing them up into a facsimile of a smile. “It’s easy, see?”

He hadn’t even released RK900’s face by the time that the android had a hand on him, gently gripping onto his sleeve. It was gentle but it was also rough, as if he didn’t want Gavin to let go. As if he was somehow touch starved, but Gavin knew that wasn’t possible. He was an android, he didn’t work that way. His eyes though, they were confused but also sad, very very sad. 

It was odd, how little expression there was, everywhere, but his lower lids had raised up and there was this crease around them that shouldn’t have been there. 

Gavin released his mouth but kept his hands where they were. Letting go almost felt like sacrilege, or his approximation of it. 

“Spit it out,” he goaded. 

“I can’t,” his voice was hardly a whisper. “My face was not rigged to smile or pout. I do not have the social protocols to integrate myself with humanity like my predecessor but more than that I do not have the synthetic muscle structure necessary to emote. My only ways of explaining sensation to others are my words, but you have learned that I also am unable to lead a conversation, through integration, or through my LED.”

Gavin felt RK900 shift, minutely, as he lifted his hand off of his cheek, could feel the android fight the urge to put it back on his plastic skin. Gavin didn’t go far though, just wiped a thumb over the red circle. 

“What sensation are you feeling now?” 

RK900’s eyes finally drooped, his gaze going back to the floor, where it was comfortable. “Distress. Disgust. Despair. I am meant to be one way and I have failed and for that failure I am resented but I am also resented for the expectation that I will succeed. Confusion as well, as the only ones who show a desire to aid me in this are a man who I was warned hates androids and a failed android hunter that I was supposed to replace.”

Gavin gave him a small smile, wanting to do more, to prove more, that he’d changed, that RK900 could change. He wanted to tell him that going against his base programming didn’t make him a failure, it made him brave and strong and more than he would have been. He knew that because he’d done it too. 

“Ashamed,” RK900 continued after a breath, “We have attracted attention and such a public display of what appears to be affection is a sign of my weakness.” 

Gavin let go of his face, noting how RK900’s LED flickered at the loss. “Well, we’ve got people to terrify with that face of yours,” he laughed, “but, phck, once you get used to it you’re not really all that scary.”

RK900 showed his teeth. It wasn’t a smile, he couldn’t do that, but it was clearly supposed to be one. “And you’re not as much of an asshole.”

Gavin smiled at that. Things were changing all the time. He led the way over to the closest of the employees, trying to act like he hadn’t spent the last couple minutes touching his partners face and, more importantly, like he knew what to ask.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> inspired by: https://twitter.com/Antromeicy/status/1151165688809005057
> 
> Both Stefano and Sebastian are trans men, while in STEM Sebastian's body is how he imagines it, making him have a cis body even though he's still self conscious, while Stefano's body matches his more biologically, since he views his biologically body as being correct and feels no dysphoria over his genitalia.

The monsters ignored places of business and, while that made no sense to Stefano, he did not question it. They had no issue chasing him and Sebastian into abandoned homes but when they reached the doors to the hotel or a store front, it was as if the unlikely pair didn’t even exist. Which was why Stefano had dragged Sebastian to a small, out of the way cafe, gotten himself a cup of coffee, and ordered Sebastian to rest on a pale cream colored sofa. 

Stefano busied himself, distracting himself with the espresso machine. It had been a long time since he’d used one so nice. This must have been quite the place, at one point. Sebastian was hard to ignore with the way he was gritting his teeth and groaning. There was blood on his shirt and that was the biggest issue. He’d taken one of those syringes of his, full of medicine that neither of them knew, but it wasn’t enough. Saved his life, probably, but didn’t seem to do much more than that. 

It was a full twenty minutes of Sebastian squirming and trying to find a position that didn’t aggravate his wounds for Stefano’s desire to interfere with them became too much for him to take over. He made his way to Sebastian’s side and coldly looked down at him, bringing a wet washcloth from the cafe sink with him. It was just a little blood. He could handle this. 

“If you’re still suffering I fear I have no choice but to interfere,” Stefano stated. The more emotion he showed, the less likely he’d be able to get through to his old enemy. 

“Interfere?” Sebastian groaned, “What are you talking about?” 

Stefano pulled out his field aid kit, the same kind he had in the military, and opened it on the arm of the couch. It was strange, after meeting Sebastian, and leaving Theodore’s control, they’d been popping up, as well as empty rolls of film, the same way that Sebastian was able to keep himself supplied on found herbs and bullets. “I mean, I’m going to have to sew you up.” He pulled out a curved needle and thread as he explained himself. 

“You can’t be serious,” Sebastian tensed and shuffled away slightly, half losing his pants in the process. 

“I am. We can’t keep moving if you’re like this.”

“I’ll find another syringe, it will be fine.”

“Do you believe I don’t know how to do this? I assure you, I won’t sew anything derived into you.”

“It’s not that. It’s shit, I need to be drunk for this?”

Stefano cocked his head, a small smile appearing on his lips. “The pain of it? Is that what you fear? I assure you, there will be more pain in letting it fester. You should allow me to take care of you, it would be better for us both.”

Sebastian glared at him and threw his hands in the air, which made him wince, as he gave in. “Fine! Fine. Just, be careful, alright?” 

“Of course, mio capolavoro,” Stefano knelt down before him, his tools on the seat beside Sebastian. His eyes traveled over Sebastian’s body, waiting. “Well?”

“Well, what?” Sebastian snapped.

“You’re going to need to strip for this. You’re jeans are practically destroyed regardless. I need to see what I’m working on. 

The blush the burst onto Sebastian’s cheeks was bright and it traveled down his face and under his shirt. “What? You can’t be serious!” 

Stefano raised his remaining eyebrow. “It is a medical procedure, I assure you, I’m not asking you anything outlandish.”

Sebastian grumbled and muttered things under his breath but he did slowly shimmy out of his pants. He didn’t have to undo them at all, that pale woman’s knife had gone through the waistband as it entered Sebastian’s hip, just after it had gone through his abdomen, just under his ribs on the opposite side. The fabric had worn off most of the coagulated blood, but this reopened what little closing the last twenty minutes had allowed. Stefan sighed at the sight, of the dark red slipping down Sebastian’s skin, dripping over his thigh and staining the space on either side. There was a cloud of it, where it had sat on his skin for so long, and he could see the texture of the denim rubbed into it. 

“Don’t get too excited,” Sebastian almost chuckled the sound more of a choked off hurumph, “I’m sure you’ve seen one of those before.” 

Stefano looked at him from his position between Sebastian’s legs, somewhat confused, before realizing that Sebastian meant his penis, which was sitting flaccid and uninterested, a bit of blood trapped in the foreskin as well. 

“I hadn’t even noticed it,” Stefano admitted, “I was actually more interested in your health, if you could believe.”

That choked off noise again. 

“Let’s keep this professional,” Stefano reminded and took up the washcloth, stroking gently around the wound before going against it, watching the way that Sebastian’s stomach jumped at the tingle of pain. A small smile graced Stefano’s lips, and he paid more attention to the way that Sebastian reacted to his touch than the blood itself. 

The red was like that of a dark room, of roses, of creation itself. It made a shiver go up his spine. He wanted to touch, more than he was. He had to control himself. He finished with his cleaning and then took up the needle and wire. 

“I’m going to need you to breathe,” Stefano instructed, “Long shallow breaths. Focus on those if you need.”

Sebastian did as he was told, for once, and Stefano got to work, digging the needle into inflamed skin. Sebastian hissed and cursed and his opposite leg started to bounce, trying to distract him from the pain. It would be easier if Sebastian was laid out on a slab of marble, bound to it, unable to move. He was keeping quiet at least, Stefano hated it when his art screamed. Stefano shook his head. Sebastian was not his art. They were working together now. He wasn’t going to make anything out of Sebastian. 

That didn’t help as much as he’d hoped, bringing his face closer to his work, so he could make sure not to make any mistakes. It was the gusseting of two varied pieces of flesh, meeting for the first time, a leg added to a body that hadn’t needed it before. It was the frankensteining of pieces that he found, of what was left of his materials, to make something new and elegant and riveting. It was beauty in a few bodies unified into one, to shock and awe and audience. 

He grit his teeth. He blinked. He was losing it. It was just a little blood and a suture. He wasn’t making art. This was a medical procedure. 

There was a hand in his hair, shaking and sweaty. He glanced up at Sebastian, who was watching him with his lips parted, his eyes glazed, worry in his expression on top of the pain. “You with me?” 

Stefano licked his lips. “Finding myself a bit distracted, is all.”

“You better not sew your gloves into me.” A joke, but Stefano took his gloves off all the same. He had scars over the backs of his hands, knots of useless skin messing up his joints. He didn’t let them get seen often, but for Sebastian, right now, a bit of humility may help. He wore gloves while he worked on his art. He hoped seeing his own damaged flesh would keep him grounded. “Shit,” was the only response that he got from Sebastian.

Stefano gave him another glance and no, that wasn’t the only response. Sebastian’s pupils were dilated, looking at his fingers, which were still long and elegant, even with the lightning bolts of pale scars. Some conditioned response, he supposed, to seeing a man take off his gloves. 

He got back to work and the lack of gloves did help, even as blood dripped onto his own skin. The scars worked like gutters, directing the fluid. He swallowed and finished the suture off. 

Sebastian’s hand hadn’t left Stefano’s hair in that time, just kind of running his fingers through it while he worked. It hadn’t been distracting at all but now, when Sebastian added a bit more of a grip to it, used the hold to maneuver Stefano around, there was no denying that Sebastian wanted something, that there was a desire that was more than just to be without pain. 

Sebastian’s cock was hard and curved over his opposite hip. He was directed Stefano to it. He hadn’t been paying the member any mind but now that it was fully erect he could see that it was big, longer and thicker than a lot of other’s in Stefano’s experience. 

“I thought I was doing well, staying professional,” Stefano huffed. The muscle jumped as his breath hit the underside. 

Sebastian let go of him. “Sorry, sorry.” He shifted, pulling back a bit, giving Stefano space. “I shouldn’t. Fuck.”

Stefano placed his hands on Sebastian’s thighs, massaging them subtly as he stroked over them. “It’s been a long time since you’ve had any attention here, has it not? I was not expecting you to have such a response to my hands on your body.”

“I’m married,” Sebastian argued, though it wasn’t with Stefano, it was with himself. “Just forget about it. I shouldn’t of even. God, I’m such a fuck up.”

“Yes, you are married and yes, you are a fuck up.” Stefano pressed a kiss to Sebastian’s inner thigh, right next to his balls. He could smell him, the trace memories of cigarettes and sweat and musk. “It’s been how long since you saw your wife? She left you and I believe that gives you permission to do as you wish.”

“I’m not giving up on her,” Sebastian argued.

“But she has on you. And if this is, as you say, not real, just a simulation, anything we do in here would be no worse than a wet dream.”

Sebastian shuddered but he spread his legs, giving Stefano better access. Stefano took a moment to grab a bandage and press it over Sebastian’s wound, just to keep it clean and dry in their next misadventure. Then he returned his attention to Sebastian’s cock, eyeing it up, taking it in hand, and pulling back on the foreskin to reveal the wet red head. He licked his lips before scooching forward, placing the head in his mouth, and lavishing it with his tongue.   
It was nice, feeling like he could stop this if he wanted, that he wasn’t doing this in order to appease or gain approval. With Theodore, he’d had the power to say no, but he also knew that he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he had if he had done so. With Sebastian there was no approval to be found. He was already too low for that. He couldn’t really fall any further and there was power in that. 

So he licked and he sucked at that head until Sebastian grabbed the back of his head, wanting to thrust further. Only then did Stefano swallow him, take him as deep as he could and moaned around the full feeling, the pressure on his tongue. He pulled back, looking up at Sebastian with a heavily lidded eye, and then took him again, trying to go a little bit further. Sebastian through his head back, his hands on either side of him, palms raised, fingers curling, as Stefano bobbed back and forth. 

When he got Sebastian into the back of his throat he kept him there, feeling the man’s testicles against his chin, his hair brushing his nose. He swallowed around it, letting his throat do the work, before he pulled off, leaving a thick slick trail of saliva after him. 

“Please?” Sebastian sighed, eyebrows pinched, thrusting towards Stefano’s face again. 

Stefano licked at the precum beading at the tip but then rose to his feet, picking up the washcloth as he did. He turned and went back to the sink behind the counter. “You still have a wound left that needs my attention.” Already his jaw was aching and there was a slight hoarseness in his voice. 

He could practically hear Sebastian whine, close to begging, from his place on the couch. He wanted to hear that. He wanted to know how good he felt, that Sebastian desired him, that he was desirable. After everything that he’d done, with the way that they’d met, having some redeemable, or at least usable, skills would be power. 

He washed the washcloth out, cleaned under his nails, and, like he pulled his knife out from the space between, that little pocket dimension that he moved through so readily, he pulled out another tool that he would need. He was well enough hidden behind the counter to attach it, to slip the bulb into himself, up into the wet heat of his cunt, that Sebastian couldn’t see what he was up to, but the thick rubber phallus would never be hidden by his clothing. He moved back to the couch with his hands and the washcloth in front of it, rubbing at the blood that had gotten into the creases of his knuckles, in order to obscure it. 

“You’re still wearing your shirt,” he complained as he sat beside Sebastian on the couch. 

Sebastian stiffened then. 

“Please, I just had my mouth on your cock, I’m sure I can handle any secrets you have on your chest.” Not to mention that he was curious about the man, and the fact that he wanted to hide his chest, made him feel some sort of closeness to him. 

Instead of pulling his shirt off, Sebastian just pulled it up, so that his pectorals were still hidden by all of that fabric. 

“That will have to do, I suppose,” Stefano pouted. “Now, sit here.” He motioned at the space between his legs, where he could see the bulge of his feeldoe pressing against the material of his slacks.

Sebastian didn’t ask about it, didn’t say anything, but he sat in the space allotted for him, his back to Stefano’s chest. It wasn’t the best position for what Stefano needed to do, but it did make it hard for him to see the blood and he felt close already to blurting out all of the horrible things that he wanted to do to the skin in front of him. 

He ran his fingers over Sebastian’s ribs, bringing up the washcloth to remove the thick clot of blood. As soon as it was free Sebastian squirmed against him, a hand reaching out to grab at Stefano’s wrist. It didn’t deter him, there was so much blood, now that it was free to spill over him, over both of their fingers. He wanted to bring up his other hand, place his fingers under Sebastian’s lips to feel how tightly his teeth were clenched. Instead he gently rubbed his fingers over the wound, gathering up blood and mewls of protest. 

He thought that he was better than this, could be more than just a monster obsessed with art, but he didn’t have to do much to make Sebastian a masterpiece, to get what he wanted from him. The blood spilling from him was watered down, making it look more plentiful, and Stefano grinned as he rested his chin over Sebastian’s tensed shoulder. The man’s face was twisted, eyes just wrinkles they were so tightly closed. 

“You’re so beautiful,” Stefano swore, red fingers leaving Sebastian’s wound to go down to his cock, to pump it a few times, before going back up to the wound, to gather more wetness. “Stunning.”

Sebastian’s body was confused, pain from his ministrations against the wound and then pleasured by his attentions. He brought his hand down past Sebastian’s cock and pressed against his hole instead, noting haw Sebastian spread his legs a bit and slid forward to give him better access. Blood didn’t make great lubricant, as he’d learned, but it worked better than nothing. He pressed against and then in and Sebastian immediately relaxed against him. 

“You like this, don’t you?” Stefano smiled, kissing his temple. “Being played with here, your already so loose, so easy to fuck.” He proved his point by thrusting in easily with his finger, feeling the way that Sebastian’s tissues tensed and relaxed, allowing him to do as he pleased. “You’re such a gorgeous specimen. You deserve to be in pleasure.” 

Sebastian moaned and spread his legs further. He lay his head back against Stefano’s shoulder. “My chest,” he whimpered, different sensations making his voice crack. “It hurts.” 

“I know,” Stefano pressed another finger into him, making him shudder and whine, almost thrusting on his own against Stefano’s touch. “I’m going to fix it, don’t you worry. Just let me distract you.”

He wrapped his free hand around Sebastian’s cock and pumped it slowly, feeling the dried blood chip off as a powder as he pressed a third finger into Sebastian’s hole. Now he was starting to feel tight, though it could have been from the stimulation from Stefano’s hand. 

“Do you want more, Sebastian?” he whispered into Sebastian’s ear. “Do you want me inside of you?” 

Sebastian shuddered and nodded, vigorous. This was nothing more than a fantasy, something happening inside the mind, they were safe in this cozy little cafe. 

Stefano pulled his fingers out of him and placed his hands on Sebastian’s waist, helping him stand up, just enough for Stefano to pull his phallus out of hiding. Sebastian glanced back at it, sized it up. His eyebrows shot up with surprise but he said nothing. That was a good sign. Stefano didn’t want to go into a discussion about the birds and the bees right then. 

He pulled Sebastian back down onto him, this time directing his cock so that it slipped into Sebastian’s hole. He couldn’t see Sebastian’s face but he could see how his back tensed with the sensation, so he massaged those muscles and soothed him with light kisses to his shoulders as he settled, sitting wholly in Stefano’s lap, that cock buried deep inside of him. 

“Distracted?” Stefano asked, running his fingers up Sebastian’s sides. He didn’t move his hips, just allowed Sebastian to get used to the feeling of being filled by the rubber. 

Sebastian nodded. 

“Good, then we’ll get back to work.” Stefano picked his tools back up and pushed forward, forcing Sebastian to lay against him, stretching his chest. “I’m going to take care of you, don’t you worry.”

Sebastian nodded again, believing him. 

Stefano sewed him closed, running his fingers along the slit that the knife had left in him. He wanted to plunge his fingers inside of the wound, fuck it like it was a greedy hole, the spread skin around it pink and hot like labia. He had done it before, on the flesh that became his obscura, and the desire to do so was quickly quieted by the memory of those horrible screams. He’d cut the girls tongue out eventually, though that only worked by making her choke on her own blood. He had a feeling that wouldn’t go over well with Sebastian. 

For each completed knot he would shift his hips, buck slightly into Sebastian, make him gasp and moan. It was a slow process, but a much less painful one. When it was done, Stefano rubbed circles into Sebastian’s lower abdomen, right where his cock had been resting. “Are you alright mio capolavoro?”

Sebastian didn’t ask what it meant. He nodded. His hands were fists against the leather of the couch. He was drenched in sweat. 

Stefano licked it off of him in a long stripe up his neck. “Good, because I’m going to fuck you now. Whatever restraint I showed, whatever mercy, it will not touch you now. I will fuck you how I please. Do you understand?” 

Sebastian looked at him, finally, and while he was pale and shaky from pain and blood loss, he had so much desire on his face, so much adoration in his expression, that Stefano couldn’t help but feel like he was doing something right.

“Please,” Sebastian murmured, “please fuck me, however you want to. I need it, please, Stefano.”

He couldn’t argue. He could do nothing really, aside from obey. Being careful not to touch the wounds he wrapped an arm around Sebastian’s waist, lifting him slightly up off of his lap and more onto his chest. His left hand took Sebastian’s thigh in hand and lifted it, giving him more access, allowing him to go deeper. And then he started to thrust, hard and fast, his cock a blur as it vanished inside of Sebastian before appearing once more. 

Sebastian could hardly moan, it was more a long whine, punctuated by those moments in which he had to breathe. Stefano hadn’t done this is in a long time and his hips stuttered, his stamina and strength failing him after a few minutes, no where near enough time, not to get either of them off. There was a nub against his own clit, rubbing him, but it wasn’t enough. He released Sebastian’s leg, pushed him forward a bit, and kissed up and down his spine. His hand trailed down between them and Sebastian gasped as it grazed his cock. 

At the base of the plug that was in Stefano’s cunt, there was a button, with a press the vibrations started, hard and fulfilling, against Stefano’s clit. It could be felt throughout the rubber and Sebastian moaned at the new feeling. 

“There we go,” Stefano mouthed against his back, bringing that hand back up to tug at his cock. Sebastian froze, crying out, as Stefano jerked him roughly before stilling for a moment. “Fuck my hand, Sebastian, I want to see you cum.” 

Sebastian was so good, so willing to do as Stefano asked. He wondered if Sebastian was like this for anyone who promised him pleasure or if he was special in some way. Sebastian put his hands on Stefano’s thighs, fucking his hand as hard and rough and Stefano had been fucking him, fucking himself on that always hard cock. With the way he was rocking the plug was sliding against Stefano’s wetness, pushing and pulling against sensitive tissues, the pressure of the vibrator too much then not enough on his clit. It was like they were both getting fucked at the same time. 

“Stop!” Stefano ordered and Sebastian did, hand still on his cock. He was close, Stefano could see it, his ministrations without plan, his hips jittering, his whines deeper and needier. 

Stefano grabbed Sebastian’s thighs and pulled until Sebastian’s lower half was barely even touching Stefano. He rammed up and in, hitting Sebastian’s prostate on each thrust. He shoved up until their skin met with each thrust and Sebastian was grabbing at the headboard of the couch, needing something to support himself on. His legs were rippling, the muscles all shaking and he groaned one long boisterous groan as he spilled, his cum shooting out of his cock, landing on the cafe floor between their feet. 

Sebastian pulled off almost immediately, not allowing himself to come down from his orgasm and Stefano worried the man was going to run, disgusted by the act they’d just committed, but he just slid off of the couch and to his knees, legs spread enough that he wasn’t kneeling in his own spend. He grabbed at Stefano’s hips, pulling him forward as he pulled Stefano’s slacks down to reveal him further. Sebastian turned off the vibrator and gently eased the feeldoe out of him, dropping it on the floor nearby. 

Stefano wasn’t expecting anything, but he was especially not expecting Sebastian to replace the plug of the toy with his fingers, sliding through his wet lips and crooking them to attack his clitoris from the inside, pushing hard against a spot in Stefano that most men didn’t even know about. He’d already learned that Sebastian wasn’t most men. He was something more. 

His mouth found Stefano’s clit and he was sucking and licking, flicking the thumb sized nub with his tongue, scraping it gently with his teeth. It didn’t take much for Stefano to cum, not used to such pampering, his hips seizing as Sebastian continued to torture his most sensitive places until it was all too much and Stefano had to grab him roughly by the hair and pull him away. They were both panting, Sebastian now with slick stuck in his stubble. 

“I assume you’re feeling better now?” Stefano breathed. 

“Mmm,” Sebastian replied, “Feeling much better, Doc. You got me feeling all sorted out.”

Stefano chuckled, the sound dark and slightly menacing, “Well, don’t go making a habit of getting yourself hurt. I can’t promise I’ll be so merciful in the future.” 

Sebastian pulled up somewhat, wincing at the stretch in his wounds, and there was the biggest surprise of the day. Sebastian pressed his lips, sticky and tasting of Stefano, against Stefano’s own, the kiss long and soft, almost sweet, and Stefano could almost imagine that it was romantic. 

“Might be tempted to try it again,” Sebastian admitted.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by: https://twitter.com/pinta_3152019/status/1162311298375278594

It wasn’t something that they did, it wasn’t something he did especially; relax, but here they were in an abandoned or, perhaps, never opened liquor store. Sebastian had found a throw pillow somewhere and he was on the floor, lying down, absolutely gone from the world. Stefano watched him, cold and calculating, but not necessarily wanting him to get himself killed. They shouldn’t have stopped here, he knew that. He shouldn’t have let them even take a detour. He had too much to do, to create, this was distracting, not just from his work but from what he had to do before he could even start on it. 

He was standing by the register, a glass of wine in hand. One glass couldn’t hurt, at least, and it was fantastic, a more expensive bottle than he’d ever choose otherwise. It was full and fruity and dry, but not too dry. He certainly had more refined tastes than Sebastian. 

He’d never seen a man drink so much, so quickly. Sebastian was still awake, but he was closing his eyes for long intervals, his body more relaxed than was safe. There were bottles around him, hard stuff, different levels of empty. He hadn’t really noticed when Sebastian had grabbed another, and he was curious about his tolerance, what sort of drunk he was, he hadn’t stopped him. Now Sebastian was completely wasted and dependent; there was no way he could defend himself if they went back out there. 

But that didn’t stop him from being completely ungracious. He looked over at Stefano, smirked, and half rolled over onto his side, away from him. “What’re you looking at? I thought all failed artists were heavy drinkers.”

“What did you say?” Stefano’s hand clenched, the fragility of the wine glass making itself known against the pressure of his fingers. 

“You’re a freaking pushover, Stef, just what, one bottle?” He rolled back onto his back, waving over at what Stefano was drinking. “Here I thought you could keep up with me.”

Stefano glanced at the bottle. That wasn’t what he was asking about. A failed artist? Was that was Sebastian had said? Even if it wasn’t what he had said, Stefano could feel it attach to his anxieties, eat away at him like the wrong kind of acid in his stomach. He had come here to find his own, to create without any obstacles, and yet, even here, he wasn’t seen as a success. He wondered if he had made a mistake, if he should have stayed with the man who actually appreciated him and his work. 

“I don’t want to leave myself vulnerable,” Stefano sighed, finishing the glass. “Not when you’re unable to face the challenges approaching us.”

“Pft,” Sebastian sputtered, “Vulnerable, you’d know wouldn’t you?” 

Stefano just cocked an eyebrow and his head to the side. 

“You’re such a fuckin, a pushover, that’s what you are. Someone gives you the slightest bit of attention and boom, there you are, on your knees, ready for whatever, whatever they ask of you.”

Stefano felt his face sag. He should stop Sebastian, stop him from saying something that he didn’t want to say, from something Stefano wasn’t capable of hearing. He instead poured more into his glass. It wasn’t like Sebastian was saying anything untrue. He deserved to have his weakness on display, shown to him like portraits in a gallery, let everyone see what he was and perhaps it would make an emotional connection, make him change somehow. 

“That’s how you got here, yeah? That’s what. What Theodore did to get you. Just stroke your ego until you did whatever he wanted.”

This glass wasn’t as flavorful as the last, was just wet in his mouth and then swallowed down to hopefully drown out the acid in his stomach, the cold rock that was making itself known from where it was digging into his heart. 

“We had similar goals,” Stefano interjected. 

“You didn’t. You wanted to make a bunch of shit and call it art and have the world adore you for it,” Sebastian argued. Stefano drained his glass, far too fast. “He wants to take over Mobius and the world through it.”

“I know you don’t appreciate my work but-

“Your work? That stuff shouldn’t even be called work. It was just murder and torture, photographed with some pithy explanation to try to get people to relate to your psychopathy. You’re not an artist, Stefano, you’re a fucking madman. And your need for attention is pathetic.”

He finished the glass and threw it across the liquor store. He could hear it shatter as it hit some far off bottles but he didn’t care. He wanted Sebastian to shut up. He needed Sebastian to shut up. He wanted to destroy him, cut him to pieces and turn him into something beautiful, but he couldn’t. There was no beauty in what he did. Sebastian was right. He was pathetic and insane and broken. He couldn’t do anything it there wasn’t someone to cheer for him at the end. He craved validation more than he did air or anything else. 

“I struck a nerve?” Sebastian giggled, grabbing a bottle of whiskey that still had something in it and brought it to his lips. “Didn’t think you had any of those.”

“Unlike what you may delude yourself into thinking,” Stefano hissed, “I do feel things.”

Sebastian just smiled there. Stefano felt small, terrible, that ice stretching out and wrapping around his throat, the acid burning through his veins. He wanted to leave, he wanted to curl up into a little ball and stop existing. He wanted to be nothing. 

“Some things. You don’t feel the important things. Love, compassion, humility. Look at you, you’re just selfishness and rage.” 

Stefano stood up, taking a swig from the bottle. He wanted to smash it too. The would just be proving his point though. Instead he just whispered, it coming out like a hiss, “shut up”.

“You were played for a fool. Theodore never cared. Never cared about you. He doesn’t care about anyone. But he knew what to say, knew that if he pretended to like your pictures you would fall for him. He wasn’t even good at it, but you fell for it anyway. You’re so needy, Stefano. You suck him off? I wouldn’t be surprised if you did, so desperate to please.”

“Shut up,” he said it louder, standing over Sebastian, glaring down at hi. He could feel his lip starting to tremble. 

“He only asked you to do one thing and you couldn’t even do it. I mean, thank god you fucked that up too, but-

“SHUT UP.” Stefano fell to his knees, one of them on Sebastian’s chest as he practically climbed on top of him, a hand shooting out to stifle any sounds that would come from him. He held Sebastian’s mouth closed, his fingers tightly pressed together to keep even the barest gasp from escaping. Sebastian was breathing, little puffs of air against Stefano’s fingers. “Just shut up.”

He didn’t look at Sebastian, not for a long time, and when he did Sebastian’s eyes were wide, staring at him. It took too long for him to recognize that Sebastian was staring at his eye, which was now on blatant display from the angle. He pulled back, letting his hair cover it again. He didn’t need pity, not with everything else that Sebastian was giving him. 

“You don’t understand. No one ever understands. Why can’t I make anyone understand?” he was mumbling, he knew that, but he didn’t care. “You act like you’re so much better than me but what have you got to show for it? Guilt? Trauma? At least I’m using my trauma to make something, instead of just wallowing in it.”

There was heat on his face and he jolted but the heat remained there, Sebastian’s hand raised and cupping his cheek, thumb just under the pulp of his eye. That thumb moved, collecting his hair and moving it out of the way. Stefano froze, the burning in his veins subsided, the cold of his chest swallowing him. His throat felt thick and full and he couldn’t swallow the sensation down. His real eye was burning and wet. He wasn’t going to cry, not at the words of this philistine. 

Sebastian was taking a good look though, studying it. Stefano had no shame in it but he hated being stared at. There were such better things to look at, he didn’t need the audiences’ attention on himself. He just closed his good eye, feeling the moisture stick his eyelashes together. 

“I should go.”

Sebastian stiffened under him. “No.”

Stefano started to stand, to pull himself off of Sebastian’s prone form, but his free arm wrapped around his back and pulled him down, dragging him close. 

“Let me go,” he whimpered, almost begging, even as the heat of Sebastian’s chest warmed the frigidy of his own. 

“I need you,” Sebastian admitted and there was desperation in it, even though it was so jarring against what he’d just been saying.

“No, you don’t,” Stefano realized, “You just need someone. You are no good for yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” it was a whisper but they were so close, “I’m so sorry. I’ll do better. I’ll be better.” 

Stefano didn’t want to bend to it, didn’t want to believe it. He still wanted to be away, just to think, to allow himself a moment of pure emotion, but he as trapped. He wondered how many times Sebastian had promised that same thing.

“This was a mistake,” he didn’t explain if he meant the liquor store or they’re pairing up in the first place. He wasn’t sure himself. “You’re going to sober up and then we’re leaving.”

“Will you stay with me?”

This time, as Stefano pulled himself free, he was allowed to do so. He sat at Sebastian’s side, fixing his hair, before he gathered up as many bottles as he could and heading towards the back room. “No. I’ll be near though, if you need me.”

Sebastian curled up on his side as Stefano went to the back room, marked employee only. It was a break room and a storage room, just a mirror and sink, a few milk crates, and boxes of bottles to replenish the walls. Stefano opened a box and a bottle and drained it, not looking at what it was. He sat on a crate with his head against the wall and breathed. 

He wanted to emote. He wanted to cry and scream, but now that he was alone, he couldn’t make it happen. He’d pretending not to be affected for so long that, now that he was able to take down those walls, he didn’t know how.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by: https://twitter.com/Saya_tsugu/status/1120373246996516874

There was no such thing as a simple job. Even with two androids, four eyes with the highest quality scanners behind them, there was just too much to keep track of. Processors buzzed and thrummed as Nines preconstructed fight sequences, each of them fading out due too too much input before they could even continue. Connor was at his side, breathing heavily, trying to keep himself from overheating, even as he took a defensive position. He didn’t have time to preconstruct; he hardly had time to react. 

They had figured it out, something that Cyberlife hadn’t even thought of. There were tricks to stump scans, make it hard for facial recognition software, in the forms of breaking up patterns and symmetry. They were surrounded by what appeared to be clowns, with all of their gaudy makeup and bright, body contouring clothes. It did the job though. It was too much. They couldn’t tell who these people were. They couldn’t tell where they were. Not until it was too late. 

A shot to Connor’s shoulder had him spinning, curling away from the fight on the rooftop. Nines was barely able to grab a hold of his wrist before the momentum pushed him over the side of the roof. He was shaking at the thought, a thanks on the tip of his lips. He couldn’t say it though, not then, not when he glanced down and down the side of the building. 

Nines let go of him, ignoring the knife slicing through his own cheek as he grabbed one of the attackers instead. He shifted, allowing the man to jump past him, over the railing. 

He was going to die. 

Connor spun of his own volition to catch him but the man - if this was a man, he couldn’t tell, they were too bright, too confusing – caught him instead. His fists were in Connor’s shirt, ripping it as his weight tugged them both down over the edge of the railing. Connor kicked out a foot, catching the railing, keeping himself from following the man over the edge and down. 

And down. So far down. 

The seams gave up and the man was clutching at his jacket instead, trying to keep a hold, trying not to fall to his death. It was take 3.7 seconds for him to land and they wouldn’t be short seconds. The jacket wasn’t made for that much weight either. Connor’s hands were on the railing now, trying to pull back, keep them back from tumbling down and down and down to that long expanse of cement below. 

Another shot fired, this one taking out a large chunk of his abdomen, just under his pump. The man let go, not having a hand to hold on with any longer. He fell with a scream which lasted the full extent of the fall. 

Connor pulled away from the railing again, clutching at his abdomen. He couldn’t feel pain, he had to remember that, that the warnings in his HUD and all of his sensors lighting up with each movement weren’t really pain. He grit his teeth and turned back to the fight. 

Nines had three of them on him, he could tell that now, from a distance, he could make out their shapes. If it weren’t for the red of his LED or the way that he was backing up from the knife and a bat, Connor would have taken a breather, just to cool down his processor, to get some strength back to his legs. That had been too close. While he was steadily losing thirium at a rate of 3.2% he was almost thankful for the shot. If it hadn’t been taken he would have fallen down there and he wouldn’t have wanted to come back from that. 

Nines had wrestled the gun away from the shooter at least and he was brandishing it like it was his own glaive, but it wasn’t enough, he still couldn’t see. He could hardly keep them off of him. 

“We need backup!” Connor called out mentally to Liz, who was still at the station, safe from all of this. 

She still sounded panicked though, as if she knew exactly what was going on. “They’re on their way! The roads are slammed with traffic, some of the officers have gotten out of their cars and are running to your position! You have to be patient!”

“I’ve been shot!” Connor growled in his mind, “Twice!”

“Techs are also on their way!”

Nines bashed the closest of his attackers over the head with the gun, which only allowed another to wrench it from him and toss it to the side. That left them with two on two, a bit better, more equal, but still a mess. Connor sprinted towards them, losing track of what was going on as he did. They were just moving, dancing shapes, impossible for him to keep track of. 

He could hear the crack as a knife slid into Nines, his harder chassis buckling under the sharp edge. He could see those dancing shapes growing closer, and then he was in the fight. A fist connected with his cheek as a hand took him by the lapel, pulling him closer. Fist after fist bared down on him, and he could hear them calling him things, “Plastic” and “Tin Man” and other slurs. They beat his face until his skin peeled away and all he could do was feebly push at them, grab at the hand on his jacket and twist, try to get it off of him, try to get away. 

Nines was there though, the better of them, stronger in every way. He shoved into the woman, pushing her away from Connor, down onto the ground. He straddled her, grabbed her by the face, and smashed her head back into the rooftop until her head was bloody and she was no longer moving. Connor couldn’t scan her, he couldn’t tell if she was even alive. 

He couldn’t act fast enough. The last of them was on Nines’ back, pulling him away from the woman, pinning his arms in a full nelson. Connor tried to rush them but they twisted, keeping Nines in front of them like a shield. They backed away, even as Nines struggled, big enough that when Nines bent forward, trying to stretch them over his back, they stood firm, pulling down to make Nines arch his back in a way that would damage a human. 

The knife was still in him, the handle sticking out of him. These people were well studied, every time they had aimed for a thirium pump and it was only their bad aim that had allowed them to survive this long. The bullet that had torn through Connor’s abdomen was nothing compared to this. The knife was touching the rim of the pump casing. 

Connor stayed on them, mouth working better than he could. Questions, trying to learn what their demands were, what they were planning, but they weren’t answering. They were practically taking Nines hostage and Connor had to fight the urge to call Liz again, if only for an ETA. 

But nines was smart, he slipped his foot behind his captor’s and tripped him, knocking them both onto the ground. He was lightweight, so he was unable to knock out his attacker and there was a scramble. Connor gave up any attempt to be cautious, just trying to get in there, pulling off his jacket as he did. He couldn’t see the figure attacking Nines, couldn’t understand the motions. He threw his jacket onto them, revealing their frame, and Nines went stiff, blue tinted fingers digging into his enemy’s shoulder, as they dug their fingers into his chest, ignoring the knife and taking out the pump instead. 

They tossed it across the roof, gritting their teeth at Connor as they did. Nines was still, clutching at the opening, as they pulled away, letting the jacket slide off of their shoulders as they did. 

“Go on then,” they grimaced, “He’s got what, 50 seconds until he’s dead right? Go on Tin Man, go get his fucking heart.”

Connor cocked his head. He had no intention to let Nines die but he also knew that Nines had more time than that. This was the main threat. He wasn’t letting them go. Not after all of the damage they’d caused. 

He turned as if to get it only to twist his feet at the last moment, pull back his fist and toss it forward into the human’s face. He may not have been as good as Nines but he could still knock a human out with a punch. He watched them fall before walking over to the pump, finding it easily. When they weren’t moving, scanning wasn’t so difficult. 

He picked it up and almost twirled it in his hand like he would a coin. It was so much smaller than his own. Nines was picking himself back up, staggering and clutching. 

“Doing that’s just going to cut down the time you’ve got,” Connor reminded him.

“You were taking too much time as it was,” Nines stated, his eyes drooping, exhaustion etching his almost emotionless face. His LED was spinning red. 

Connor spread Nines’ shirt open, the knife making it easy as it sliced through the material. He was careful not to get any threads inside of Nines as he slid the pump back into place, turning it until it clicked and locked in. Nines sighed, his LED finally going back to yellow. 

He untied Connor’s tie and slipped the remnants of his shirt off of his shoulders, thumbs carefully stroking away from the bullet wound in his shoulder, eyes slipping down to the worst one in his stomach. 

“You’re bleeding out.”

“Slowly,” Connor promised, “A tech is on the way.” 

Nines sat down, right there, in the middle of the roof, with unconscious or dead humans surrounding them. He pulled the knife out of his chest and let it clatter to the floor. 

“Sit with me?” 

Connor did so and Nines sloughed off his jacket, handing it over to the smaller android. He wasn’t cold but he appreciated the gesture, pulling it around his shoulders. He immediately felt a little better, a bit closer to Nines, as he could feel the residual heat from his body surround him. Nines shifted, so they were back to back. 

He couldn’t help but hear the devastation in Nines’ voice. “He’s gonna be pissed. You know that, right?”  
The sound of sirens was close. The sound of footsteps were even closer. Backup was finally arriving. Just a bit too late, as per usual. He glanced over but Nines wasn’t looking at him, he wasn’t looking at anything. If anything he was staring at a splatter of his own blue blood on the roof. 

At the forefront of the footsteps was Hank. Connor could recognize his labored breathing. The other officers would probably get there faster if he wasn’t blocking the way.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> inspired by https://twitter.com/hyoninnuri/status/1164287190647492608

It wasn’t unusual for their chases to end in a fight. If it was a case of manslaughter, sure, but they were rarely called in for those. People either ran and hid or they turned themselves in. This was murder though, and murder tended to end in a fight. 

They were on the bridge, right over the river, when the bastard pulled a blade. It was small, just a switchblade, but he was fast and spry and Gavin had relied too much on having a better faster stronger android for a partner for too long. His cardio was good, his aim was perfect, but his hand to hand combat had suffered in the past few months. He didn’t want to draw his gun either. He’d seen the hollow eyes of officers who’d killed a man. 

He dodged, but not fast enough and the blade caught in the sleeve of his hoodie, tearing a long stripe in it, catching his arm and drawing blood. It wasn’t too deep though. It was easy to ignore. 

Nines wasn’t easy to ignore. He came in like a freight train, shoving Gavin out of the way and into the path of the suspect. The tussle was easier for him, Gavin was able to watch from the sidelines, catching his breath, trying to calm down the situation that was obviously spiraling further out of control. The suspect was yelling slurs, thrusting with the knife, and Nines was easily dodging but not getting anywhere closer. Gavin was going to have to get involved again. 

He did so, stepping behind the suspect, grabbing him by the wrist when he reared back to aim his knife into Nines’ shoulder. Nines took the opportunity to uppercut into the suspect’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Gavin grit his teeth as he twisted his wrist, not reacting to the punch to the abdomen. He had to be on something. He had to be, because Nines wasn’t moving, just cocking his head as he analyzed the suspect’s reaction. He tossed his knife into his left hand, kicked back into Gavin’s shin, and stabbed forward, the knife plunging into Nines’ chest as easily as it would have flesh and bone. 

The reaction was immediate, the LED a light show, flashing from blue to yellow to red, strobing fast and chaotic. He clutched at the knife, stepping back and staring at it. Gavin hissed out his name as he fell to the side, clutching the railing. Nines had been stabbed before. He’d been stabbed a lot of times. He never cared about it before. But this was right in the middle. This was his heart. 

“Nines!” Gavin called again, but the suspect had turned on him. His eyes were almost as red as Nines’ LED. He really had to be on something. He was still ready to fight. 

Gavin grabbed a hold of him, by the waist, but it wasn’t enough. Whatever exhaustion the man should have been feeling was ignored, whatever was in his system overriding any constrant or control he should have had. He grabbed Gavin back, by the shoulders, easily, and he was so much bigger than Gavin was. It didn’t matter how Gavin moved, unless he took off his hoodie he was going wherever the suspect was taking him. He didn’t have time to take off his hoodie. 

And he was going over the railing. 

There wasn’t time to think. There wasn’t time to react. He was falling and then he was bringing up his arms to cover his face and he was in the water. Not even enough time to suck in a big enough breath. He’d tried out for the swim team in highschool, he knew about diving, but he was going down faster, with more drag, than he’d ever done in a pool. He was heavy, everything on him soaking immediately and sucking him down, pulling him closer to the bottom of the gray brown water. 

He held his breath, there was nothing else that he could do. He kicked out, trying to find his purchase, to launch himself upward. He couldn’t even find up after a few moments. He thought he’d righted himself, that he was aiming the right way, but his legs were straining, his vision blurry from the pollutants. He couldn’t see. His eyes stung. A feeling, like an ache but colder, was spreading like veins in his lungs. He had to get up. He had to get to air. 

He kicked out again, remembered his training, his legs finding a rhythm even with how tight they felt in the clinging denim. He couldn’t tell if he was even moving. 

There was the sound of a splash, in that strange hollow backwards way that sound traveled underwater, and he turned, trying to see where it came from. He could hardly see anything. 

He could see some bubbles and then a streak of red and then he could see nothing. It was just more of the same, more of that gray and brown, and the air bubbles were his own as his lungs ached and burned, unable to hold onto the carbon dioxide any further. He tried not to breathe in, couldn’t afford to get any of that filthy water in his lungs. He closed himself off as best he could and struggled for the surface. 

Then there was red again, coming towards him, shooting up from beneath him. The water was more blue than it had been and there was a shape among the bluer water, attached to the red light. 

Nines looked like shit, but his cheeks were bulging and he didn’t show signs of pain, from being stabbed. He was there, with Gavin. If he’d been able to think he would have wondered if Nines had been pushed off the bridge as well, if the suspect had gotten away, but none of that mattered. All he could do was try to get up, try to get to air. 

Nines grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and pulled him close, pushing their lips together. Gavin knew it wasn’t possible, for the cliché from old movies wasn’t scientifically sound, that there was no way that he could share air with someone, but he opened his mouth when he felt Nines’ tongue press against his and he breathed in the air that Nines exhaled into him all the same. The pain in his lungs lessened and the fog started to clear and he could see better, could see that Nines still had the knife protruding from his pump, that he wasn’t wearing his jacket, and that there was light streaming down on them. 

Nines started to swim, pulling them both up. Gavin joined him, ignoring how his legs argued against it, wanting a break from all the running and swimming and keeping him together. Nines wasn’t looking up, was only staring at Gavin as they moved and, when Gavin had to release the spent air, he pulled Gavin in again, pressed their lips together, and gave him another breath. 

Nines didn’t have to breathe, Gavin knew that. He didn’t need to have air in him at all. But Gavin remembered something, from back when they were doing a fire drill, that RK units all were equipped with filters, and could clean oxygen for their vocal components or to pass that air onto someone else. In this case that was Gavin. 

His LED was flickering faster though, still red, and his eyes were drooping. He wasn’t kicking as hard. Gavin noticed that, the closer they got to the surface, the less Nines was doing to keep them going. He gave Gavin another breath before letting go of Gavin and trying to push away. Gavin reached out though, grabbing him by the wrist. 

Nines shook his head. Gavin didn’t understand. He couldn’t. Nines was just allowing himself to be dead weight in Gavin’s hold. The moment it was clear that he was actually dragging Gavin down, he twisted his arm and tossed his arm to the side, breaking out of Gavin’s hold. He let himself sink, pointing to the surface. 

Gavin kicked, made his way there, broke through and took a few sputtering breaths. He looked down for a moment and, it must not have been long, because he could still see Nines’ shape from down below. One more deep breath, and he turned, shoving himself back down under the dark water. 

He was glad that Nines was big and dark because even though his LED was only blinking a few times per minute, Gavin could find him. He grabbed a hold of him from under his shoulder and, far too exhausted to keep doing this, forced himself one last trek, up to the surface and over to shore. 

Nines wasn’t moving. Gavin knew water safety, made sure Nines’ head stayed above water as he swam with the android over to land. Nines eyes were closed. He wasn’t breathing. Gavin had to remember that androids didn’t need to breath. The fact that the LED wasn’t lit anymore, only a rare flicker of red here and there, was far more worrisome. 

He got them to shore and heaved Nines onto it, heaving himself next to him. For once, Nines’ perfectly coiffed hair wasn’t. For once, Nines wasn’t staring at him with those chilling ice blue eyes. He was just laying there, dormant, his LED not even spinning. 

Gavin was dripping, sitting over him. His hand went to the knife, not sure if he should pull it out or not. The shirt had ripped around it, letting him see the wound more easily. He could see the rim of the thirium pump, could see where the blue blood was pooling in the crease of it, before dripping down his side. His skin was already so pale, but with the blue on it it looked even paler. 

“H-hey, asshole!” Gavin growled, glaring at Nines’ face. 

Nines didn’t respond. Gavin tried not to think about what that must mean. He wondered if he was supposed to do CPR. If he was supposed to get the water out of Nines somehow, because he’d carried Nines before and there was no way that Gavin was so out of shape that Nines was now too heavy for him. He was though. It was only the effect of the water that had let Gavin get him half way out of the water. 

‘no,’ he begged, in his head, as he bit his lap, to something he didn’t even spend time thinking about most days; God or RA9, he didn’t know. Didn’t particularly care, either. ‘ don’t phcking do this,’

“Hey,” he considered slapping Nines across the face, just to get a response. He couldn’t believe he wasn’t getting a response. He always got a response from Nines. 

‘Phck.’

He put his hand to Nines’ throat, even though he knew he wouldn’t find a pulse. Nines was so cold. He’d never been cold before. He always kept himself a proper temperature, as if he knew how uncomfortable his cadaver-like skin could be to people. 

“Nines.” 

Still nothing. 

‘Nines, please! Don’t do this to me.’ 

Nines wasn’t moving. Nines wasn’t doing anything. For all Gavin knew he was going into a complete shut down. He was dying. Maybe he was already dead. Gavin’s lungs were still trying to catch up from the water but now they were twisting on top of that as tears sprang to his eyes. 

“I don’t know how to file a service ticket for damaged androids, you piece of shit,” he deflected. He had to deflect. He couldn’t let himself feel, not for Nines. Not for anyone but especially not for Nines. If he let himself feel anything he’d be forced to feel everything and he couldn’t handle that, not when he was in the process of losing him. 

‘Wake up!’

Nines’ eyelashes didn’t even flutter. He didn’t remember the last time he saw Nines’ LED flicker. He didn’t know who to call, not that he could call anyone, his phone was as full of water as Nines must have been. 

“So, time to come online, asshole.” There was no grit to it. There was no venom. Even he could hear the care in it. He needed Nines to come back. 

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and it was as dead as he thought it would be. He would have called for backup, techs, phck, he’d even call Connor for some information. His phone might be salvageable, with enough rice. Nines wasn’t so lucky. 

He looked back at Nines. Rice in electronics. He couldn’t believe he was even considering it. He didn’t know what else to do though. But, first, he had to get all this water out of the android. 

He tore through Nines’ shirt and, as much as he didn’t want to, he grabbed the hilt of the knife and pulled. Blue gushed out after it but Nines didn’t react. Gavin didn’t know what he was doing. He’d never been technical, but he knew a little bit just from being around the RKs. He shoved his fingernails into the groove of the thirium pump, and turned it so that it could pop out. He yanked it the rest of the way out of Nines chest. 

That got a response. The LED lit back up a bright red, though it faded quickly. He knew that he didn’t have much time before the damaged pump had to be put back in place. Even though it was broken, it was better than nothing. 

Gavin grabbed Nines by the shoulder and pushed him over. He could hear the water trickle through his parts, could see it pour out of the hole in his chest, joined by so much thirium. He turned hims further, onto his front, for as long as he could, before turning him back over and returning the pump to its port. 

The LED flickered back to life, just a few flickers before it was back to it’s rare and uncomfortably, unpredictable pattern. 

“Come on!” he ordered through grit teeth, “You stupid hunk of plastic, come on!” 

He could hear steps coming. He turned, reaching for a gun that would be as dead as his phone. There was an old man there, followed by a very severe looking woman in a sundress. Neither of them were dressed for hiking down the hill beside the bridge. 

“You alright?” the man grumbled with a deep voice. “Saw your friend there jump off the bridge there. Got here as soon as we could.”

“You got a phone?” Gavin shivered, “Call the station. We need a tech here, asap!” 

He nodded and turned to the woman, but she was already pulling out her phone and dialing. 

“You just hold on, okay?” he took a second of fragility, stroked the side of Nine’s face to push some of his hair away. “You’ll be okay, just stay with me.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by https://twitter.com/hyoninnuri/status/1164405130667520002

He didn’t want to move. Even after a shower and a load of laundry and a night of rest and another shower, he felt like he was still covered in the grunge of the river. He sat at his desk, staring at his screen, leaning on his crossed arms. To most he would seem asleep, especially since his hood was up over his head. It was a different hood, a black one, since the burgundy one was too covered in blood and had been cut open. He wouldn’t be able to put it back together. 

A mug, his mug, was set down on his desk, on his right. It had a little tabby on it. 

“Uh, earth to Meekus…” A voice. A familiar voice. A voice that wasn’t talking down to him, or condescending or trying too hard to find a good side to him, not like the rest of their coworkers. Not cold and methodical, too many big words than necessary, not the voice he wanted. He glanced out of the safety of his hood up at Tina. “The fuck happened out there?” 

He sat up a little bit, putting his hands to his hood. He didn’t want to pull it back, he didn’t want to be seen. His eyes were all red, he was sure, his nose was drippy. He could say that he was sick, he should have said that he was sick. He’d been in the river, he probably had some sort of disease or mutation from how nasty that water had been. 

He decided against it. He could already see Tina’s eyes go wide as she caught a glimpse of the bandage around his wrist. 

“He dove in to save me,” he admitted, his words blunt and quiet. He didn’t want people to know. He didn’t know why. He knew that being thrown off a bridge wasn’t a sign of weakness, but he didn’t want people to think of him that way. He was the one who saved Nines, after all, he should have felt strong for that. But instead, he felt like he wanted to be even more closed off than usual. 

“I thought androids could swim,” Tina stated. 

“Yeah, well, apparently not with a damaged bio-component.” Gavin tapped at his chest, at the exact spot where Nines had been stabbed. It was his fault. He knew that. Nines would have been fine if he’d just drawn his gun. Nines would have been fine if he’d just been faster. There were a million ways in which he should have been better. But he had failed. 

He hadn’t heard a word about Nines’ condition since. 

Tina squatted down beside him, wrapping an arm around him, pulling him close. As far as hugs went, it sucked. He wasn’t used to hugs, he hadn’t had one in years, and he and Tina didn’t do that, weren’t huggy. The fact that she was trying now was just awkward. 

“Don’t do that,” he pushed her off. 

“Thank you, I hated it too,” she smirked. 

“You should ask Hank for some lessons,” Gavin bit at the dryness on his lips. “He’s been getting a lot of practice lately.”

She punched him in the arm, harder than usual but enough to remind him for a while that it had happened. “Shut up! I’m not that bad.”

She got up though, dusting herself off, and turned in time to catch a dispatch call. She gave Gavin the finger and waltzed out of the bullpen, heading out to one of the hundreds of crime scenes that would need attention that day. She walked by Connor though, and Gavin’s eyes were tacking her, so he had no choice but to get the plastic prick’s attention. 

Connor perked up and strode over, the smile on his face looking more plastic than usual. “Detective Reed, I am glad to see that you’re alright after yesterday’s altercation.” 

Gavin waved him off. “No, you’re not.”

“Well, I’m glad to see that the suspect is in custody and both you and Nines survived, at the very least,” Connor corrected, “I know that you and I do not always get along to the best of our abilities, but I was hoping that you would accompany me to visiting Nines after work.” 

Gavin put his hands over his face, leaning into his own fingers. He didn’t want to go anywhere with Connor. He didn’t want their relationship to change. He didn’t like Connor. He did want to see Nines though. “You get an update or something?” 

“Yes! As I am connected to Nines by being of the same line, and there are no other androids of his model type, my schematics are highly integral to the tech team’s understanding of how he works.”

Gavin glared at him through his fingers. “And he’s going to be alright?” 

Connor sobered at that, looking down at his feet in a mockery of human emotion, always a bit exaggerated. “It is too early to say for sure. He is not even awake yet to be tested for any discrepancies in his memory or programming.”

“Fine, fine, we’ll go, but unless you’ve got an update on his condition, don’t talk to me until work’s over.”

Connor all but bounced on his heels at that but he did as instructed, not saying another word as he turned to go back to Hank. He could hear them talking about him if he paid closer attention. He didn’t want to though. He tapped at his chest and then at the keyboard, finally getting to work. He had reports to file, a lot of them being about the river incident, and he had to get ahead on them. He couldn’t go out on the field without a partner, now that he had one. 

His coffee was bland. Nines didn’t make him coffee often, and it was still the same old slop that everyone else had in the break room, but he knew how Gavin liked it all the same. Gavin usually made it himself and, even then, it was never as good as what Nines did. 

The day passed slowly, uneventfully, and then Connor was at his desk with that plastic smile smeared on his creepy face. Gavin sighed and got up, clocking out the old fashioned way, with the electronic system mounted to the wall instead of his phone. It was in his freezer, in a bag of rice, but he didn’t have much hope for it. 

He could have visited on his own. He shoved his hands in his pockets and followed Connor down into the basement. It was supposed to be a storage room but it hadn’t been used in years, so it had been retrofitted to be a tech station. It was still too small for more than a few androids to be repaired at a time, but with only Nines down there, it should have been large enough. 

Upon hearing that Connor and Gavin were there, Angela, the tech, ran from bed to bed and closed the curtains, as if she was hiding something. She even pulled a sheet up and over Nines’ just letting his face and shoulders be viewed from under the blue sheet. 

She was quick to steal Connor’s attention, to talk to him in all sorts of jargon that Gavin would never understand. It gave him a moment to himself, just with Nines. 

Even though he was covered, Gavin could tell that there was a lot of him missing. He was just a head and a torso but then the shape of his torso was all wrong. There was a loud rumbling, like fans, and a swift breeze throughout the room. He wasn’t too far off then, with the rice idea. He was glad then, that Angela had closed off the rest of the beds. He didn’t want to see Nines’ parts. 

The LED on Nines’ temple was fading in and out, still red, while the rest of his features were soft and relaxed. Gavin pressed his thumb against it and then rolled his knuckles down his strong cheekbone. Seeing him like this, it wasn’t something that Gavin ever wanted to see him like. He looked fragile, and both too human and not human at all. There was nothing like seeing the shapes of someone’s insides to tell that they weren’t anything like you, but he was so vulnerable and open like this that it was hard to remember that he was a machine all the same. 

“Why’d you go do something so stupid, you plastic piece of shit?” Gavin murmured and the words sounded soft, even to him. 

“Couldn’t have you just die,” Nines rasped in response. Other than his mouth, he was still. 

“Shit!” Gavin leaped back, pulling his hand away like Nines as going to grab him. “You’re awake?”

“Only simple processed,” Nines replied, eyes still closed. “Angela needs me responses in case of a difficulty in my systems.” 

Gavin took a step closer, drawing near once more, as if they were friends, as if Gavin had any right to stand at Nines’ side like this. “You jumped in after me because you didn’t want me dead? What about you? You were stabbed.” 

“I am an android. My parts can be replaced. My memories can be backed up and put into a new body. I am completely replaceable. You are not.” 

Nines didn’t respond when Gavin touched him, so he trailed his fingers through Nines’ perfect hair, twisting it between his fingers. “You’re the only RK900, remember? There’s no more bodies or anything. You get yourself killed, that’s all there is.”

“I am android,” Nines repeated. “I am replaceable. Another RK800 could take my place.”

“That’s not true,” Gavin argued, softly, “I hate androids, remember? Someone tries to replace you they’ll be in pieces by the end of the week.”

“Is that a threat?”

Gavin shrugged. “No. Just. Don’t get yourself killed. You’re not replaceable. Not to me, okay?” 

Nines didn’t respond, not for a long time, though the LED cycled yellow instead of red. “Alright, Gavin.” 

Gavin smiled, for the first time that day. It was quickly hidden away before Connor came over to poke his nose in places where it didn’t need to be.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by https://twitter.com/skxviii/status/1148984810653790209

Gavin jumped out of the car, barely putting it in park, not caring that he was too far away from the curb. Other officers, usually his friends but currently just background noise, shouted at him, tried to stop him, but there was no stopping him. He pushed his way past them, past the androids that came out of the building, wide eyed and flashing red. 

Everything was blue. 

Somehow, he got inside. He was coughing, wheezing. There was so much smoke. He could see shapes through it but the lights were the most use. He pulled up his shirt, covering his nose and mouth before calling out for one android in particular. 

He called and called but those that were scrambling past him, those that grabbed at him, too broken to carry themselves out, were staring at him with as much confusion as he was showing worry. 

One of them, a woman who was missing her right arm, thirium pouring down her side and staining her slightly melted face, put a hand on his shoulder. 

“Who are you looking for? Who’s Nines?” she asked, her voice so calm she must not have been a deviant.

Of course, no wonder none of them had tried to help him. They didn’t know Nines, not by name. 

“My partner. He’s a, uh, an RK900.” He hoped that was enough. He’d never memorized the serial number. 

She tilted her head and thought for a moment as more androids shoved past, trickling instead of flooding now. There weren’t many left in the building that had survived the explosion or the collapse after, he assumed. 

“It is upstairs, apartment 206. Damages are minimal to the unit.” she stated. 

Gavin almost felt cold, even though he knew that the building was burning. He hated it when people, android or not, referred to Nines as an it. He rushed off, not bothering to thank her. She wouldn’t feel any way about it either way. The entrance had been mostly cleared out by those moving through it but there was more rubble, more broken walls and cracked floors the closer he got to the stairs. He’d never been to the android apartments before, but he found the stairs easily enough, he just had to find the long lines of blue. 

The railing was a curled twisting thing, the steps broken and sagging, even though they were cement and rebar. A gardener android pushed past him in his urge to get out of there, the upper half of a Traci, bleeding and sobbing wrapped around his chest, clinging to his neck. 

The 3rd floor ceiling had collapsed. There were chunks of it everywhere but, in between 205 and 209 was the largest piece of it. That didn’t mean it was too big though, only about seven feet, and Gavin had a sudden, horrible turn in his gut as he realized that the apartments for androids, at least, those on this floor, were slightly larger than lockers. A place to go into stasis and nothing more. 

He pushed through the dust and the smoke closer, to where he could see flashing flickering red in a synchronized pair. 

Nines was on his knees, one hand hoisting up the massive chunk of concrete. Even though his muscles were synthetic Gavin could see the strain as he held it up. Beneath the slab was another android, one that Gavin didn’t know the designation of but had dark hair and a strong jaw and were pretty much everywhere. This one though was pressed flat from the waist down and was trying to drag himself out from under the collapsed roof. He wasn’t doing well. 

“Phck!” Gavin growled and reached under the slab, grabbing the android by the armpits. He cried out as he grasped at Gavin back, the pain apparent in his face as Gavin dragged him out. Nines dropped the floor as soon as the android was free and panting. 

“Get him out of here,” Nines ordered, “and yourself while you’re at it.” 

“What the phck?” Gavin shot him a look but he was already helping the whimpering and shuddering android into his arms, so that he could carry him out of there. “I just phcking found you, you piece of shit!” 

“You should not have.” Nines stood and stared at the ceiling, eyes scanning through the floor into the apartments. “This place is far too dangerous for a human.” 

“It’s too dangerous for you too, dumbass! Or did you not realize that a bomb went off?” 

“There’s another explosive in the building.” Nines pointed with that one arm. Gavin noted that the other was hanging limp and dead at his side. The white of his sleeve was a deep blue starting at the elbow. “You have to get out of here before it goes off.” 

“I’m not leaving without you!” Gavin argued. 

“I have a job to do.” Nines started to walk towards the part of the 3rd floor that hadn’t fallen but sloped. Gavin knew he was planning on climbing it, going up further. “If you remain here when the explosive detonates you will have a 3% chance of surviving.” 

“What about you?” 

Nines didn’t even look at him. “I have to get everyone still alive out of here.” 

“You know what I mean, tin can! You gonna live or what?” 

“If I am here when the explosive detonates I will have a 1.2% chance of surviving. I recommend you do not tarry me further.” 

Gavin swore under his breath. There were fingers digging into his shoulder, a red LED pressed against his chest, wires and thirium dripping down his thighs from where he was holding the half crushed android. Nines was right though, he always was. 

Getting down and out of the building was easier than getting inside and to Nines. There were techs everywhere, firefighters preparing to take care of the fire that was spreading, and the bomb squad, as well as the seemingly endless sea of androids and police. 

“Everyone away from the building!” Gavin bellowed, walking as quickly as he could towards one of the tech vans. “There’s another bomb in the building! I repeat! Get away from the building!” 

Someone must have heard him because the message was repeated over intercom and people started to move, getting further from the building than their initial training had told them to. Gavin set the android down with one of the techs, though his fingers were now half embedded in Gavin’s jacket and he didn’t seem willing to let him go. Guy must have been in shock. Gavin hated to leave him there but he also couldn’t leave Nines alone inside. He just had to hope that Nines would get everyone else out. He would never take care of himself first. Selfless to the end. 

He knew it was coming. He knew that Nines was right about it. That didn’t help him brace for it when it did come, when the building shattered and glass flew out in all directions. The sound was like a single bullet being fired multiplied by a thousand and followed by a terrible rolling thunder that never seemed to end. Even though he was far enough away not to get hit by debris he could feel the wind hit him like little shards and a high pitched ringing took over his hearing. 

He was rushing back. He wasn’t his own. His legs moved on instinct. 1.2% was a blaring red sign in his head. Nines was in there. He was probably dead or dying but Gavin knew he was in there. He couldn’t be in there alone. He couldn’t die alone. The others were better at slowing him down this time. Fowler even stepped in, put his hand on Gavin’s chest, threatened to fire him. He didn’t care. That didn’t matter. His job was all that he had, all that he was, but that didn’t matter. Nines had come into his life. He couldn’t let him leave it again, not like this. 

He shoved past, ignored the continued yelling. He made it to the door, jumping over the bomb squad’s perimeter and their own little robot, and shoved through the buckled wood. It was now completely dark. There was no red to see by. There was just smoke and debris. 

“NINES?” he screeched, pushing himself through it, feeling hands creeping up to him, trying to grab at him, trying to pull him back. They tightened in his jacket and he let them pull it off of him so he could dart further, climb the piles of cement, look for his partner. Look for his friend. “NINES YOU BETTER NOT BE DEAD YOU SACK OF SHIT!”

You pushed through and forward, trying to get to the stairs. Nines had been working his way up. He didn’t even get halfway there when he felt a thick smattering of water splash onto him. If it weren’t for that terribly familiar chemical smell he would have thought it was just water, anyway. It wasn’t. 

With the flashlight on his phone he could see the blue that had landed on him. He was practically covered in blue by now but this large drop had landed on his heart, where his jacket had kept him clean before. 

He brought his phone up, the light illuminating the floors above him, all exposed now. There was a hand, hanging over the side of part of the whole, dripping blue blood. The sleeve on it was also blue but he could tell it was once white. 

“Shit! NINES! I’M HEADING UP THERE! DON’T MOVE!” He screamed as loud as he could hearing the building groan in response, as if it wanted to keep him away itself. 

He pushed through harder, moved faster, some semblance of hope that Nines may have survived growing in his chest. His muscles ached, his lungs burned, and he could feel the heat grow as the fire started to eat at the walls, invisible to him but very much present. 

He made it to the stairs but, that was it. He couldn’t go any further. They had completely collapsed. He felt the air leave him, his hopes also collapse. He couldn’t get there. He couldn’t find Nines. If he was still alive he was going to die alone. 

The building shuddered and he heard a few thuds, more collapsing and falling. He didn’t have much time. He knew there were others in the building. They were coming for him. 

A door crashed to the floor and smoke billowed out into the main space. Gavin couldn’t see at first, the flames within the room blinding him to what was coming. All he could tell from the silhouette was that it was vaguely human in shape. Then the smoke overtook the flames, and he could see.   
Nines. 

He was pulling himself through the doorway, walking on a leg that looked like it was ready to collapse beneath him with each step. There was a hole going through his thigh. His jaw was clenched, his eyes on Gavin and there was a look on his face, pure determination, intimidating and even more so because a large chunk of his skin had broken off. His teeth were visible, though they were stained blue as was most of that side of his face, even the sclera of his eye had pooled with it. And his arm. Of course, it was missing. What was left were tubes and mechanical parts, hanging from him. Blue was pouring out of him. 

“You came back,” he stated. His voice was more machine than it had ever been before, not an echo but a tinny quality to it, as if he was actually speaking through a tin can. 

“Of course,” Gavin showed his own teeth, not sure what he was supposed to do. A large part of him wanted to rush forward and grab Nines, hold him close like he had the half flat android. There was another part of him though that knew to stay away because Nines was strong and scary as hell and would never accept his help. 

The fire fighters were shouting after them. They were almost there. They were going to be alright. 

“Thirium levels at 27% and dropping,” Nines admitted, eyes flickering down. “Shutdown imminent.” 

They weren’t going to be fine. Nines took another step and, without the door frame to keep himself upright he staggered, half falling. He didn’t catch himself. He didn’t need to. Gavin was there, hands calloused and rough on Nines’ waist. The android lay his head on Gavin’s shoulder, face half buried in his neck. 

“It’s okay, plenty of thirium just a few yards away. You’re going to be okay.” Gavin promised. 

Nines wasn’t a deviant, but he was certain he could feel him shaking as he stained Gavin’s skin with his blue.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [error inspiration initially credited to art thief]

Gavin slammed the door to his shitty little apartment, kicking off his shoes and all but throwing them across the hall. Dude chirped at him with annoyance before running down the hall. He’d figured out when Gavin was in a mood by now and knew to go to bed. He’d end up there eventually and then Dude would sit on his face and he wouldn’t be able to cry or hyperventilate without drowning in fat orange cat.

He didn’t want comfort. He didn’t want care. He wanted to punch and slam into things and hurt. It was so strong, so visceral. He dug his fingers into his arms, but he couldn’t feel the press because of his jacket. He wanted to feel it. The pain was in his head, not in his body. He wanted to expose it.

He screamed, not caring who heard him, loving and hating the way that his throat choked around his visciousness. He was a monster. It made sense for him to be alone. It made sense for them all to want him to stay away.

It was an overreaction, he knew that. He’d had worse, he’d been left behind before. He thought that he was doing better though, that people were starting to like him. It wasn’t even a big deal. So he wasn’t invited to a party that almost all of their coworkers were invited to, who cares? They probably just didn’t want his ugly mug around to shit all over everything. That thought didn’t even make sense to him but he knew he was no good at parties, that he was too much a pessimist.

He hadn’t been invited to a party in years. He still showed up sometimes, but the fact that this was Tina’s birthday of all things and he thought that she was his best friend made him hold back. He wasn’t going to crash it. If she didn’t want him there, there had to be a reason.

He thought he was doing better. He thought that people were starting to like him.

He was a fool. How dare he think that he could change people’s opinions of him? So what, he had a big android for a partner and he wasn’t shitty to him and he smiled more and he brought in chips every once in a while, that didn’t make him a good person. It wasn’t enough. Just thinking about it made him feel pathetic, like he was a dog begging for table scraps of affection.

He lit a cigarette, finding the half empty box in one of the coats hanging by the door. Another thing he’d failed at. He was a quitter, even at quitting. He lit it easily, practiced, and inhaled the smoke deeply, feeling the nicotine relax his tension, make the withdrawals fade for the moment.

There was a knock on his door. He spun on his sock, a little bit too far because of the hardwood, and glared at it. Someone thought he was worthwhile or, at least, they thought it would be fun to see him in his misery. He straightened up, hoping that whoever it was could see him glaring through the wood. It wasn’t someone coming to check in on him, to give him a late invitation. It was a neighbor, annoyed by his noise. It had to be.

The knock landed again, each beat measured, the same pattern and weight behind the fist.

“What do you want?” he barked. Nothing. They wanted nothing. They wanted him to be nothing so that they could go back to their lives.

“It was brought to my attention that you may require my services,” came the voice on the other side, loud enough that he could hear it clearly but no mare. He knew that voice, that calm demeanor that would never be shaken, that emotionless cadence, that deep tone that kept him up some nights. The nondeviated androids were the only ones from the bullpen not invited. Alongside him.

He was actually somewhat surprised that Nines hadn’t been invited, he got along with Tina better than many.

“I don’t ‘require your services’ or whatever the phck you’re going on about!” Gavin practically shouted. “Why don’t you just go, uh, get, phcked or something!” He wanted something more clever than that, something that was more personal. What he gave was amateur.

“I have no interest in getting phcked,” Nines stated in that cold tone though there was a beat of silence that made it sound like there was more that he wanted to say on the subject. “Officer Chen wanted me to check in on you.”

He sputtered at that, grimaced. He didn’t know when Nines had learned how to lie but he didn’t like it. Tina wouldn’t have told him to do that and Nines was pretty good at ignoring orders that he didn’t like so there had to be something else.

Gavin let himself sag against the door, the pressure flat and somewhat painful against his back. His jacket may have protected him from his fingers but it wasn’t padded enough to make a door comfortable. “Leave me alone.” He rubbed at his forehead with his hand, careful not to stab himself in the eye with his cigarette.

“No,” Nines said.

Gavin stilled, turning to look at the door again. Nines said no to him? Of all people, he said no to his partner. Gavin had never heard him say no before. He always followed orders, though sometimes he would decide that it was a low priority and would put off an order as long as he could. That was how he’d explained how he wasn’t killing every deviant around him. He still had his mission, but he was putting every other mission at a higher priority. He would get around to it when he had nothing else to do.

“I don’t need you!” Gavin slammed his heel into the door and regretted it immediately. “I don’t need anybody.”

Then he fell.

The door was opened quickly and he had no way of catching himself before gravity was having its way with him. He called out with surprise, dropping his cigarette and throwing out and arm to catch himself, but Nines was there, catching him easily with those big strong arms of his. Gavin had to look up at him, upside down, and he was just so - ugh, Gavin didn’t want to think about it. Still, the thought that the bag of bolts had caught him so easily did things to his insides and he was certain that he’d have trouble sleeping again.

Nines pushed him back into a standing position and entered his apartment as if he’d been invited, walking easily over to the cigarette on the hard wood, pushing his heel on it, and twisting to snuff it out. “You were doing so well, Gavin. This is disappointing.”

That stung. Gavin closed the door, wanting to bolt through it. He didn’t want Nines there. He didn’t want to be a disappointment. He was disappointing everyone these days. And he was trying too, so so hard.

“Don’t say that,” he whispered, leaning against the door, this time with his head against the wood. He didn’t want Nines seeing his expression. He didn’t want Nines to see that he was hurting.

“Giving up on the things that you want will only disappoint you,” Nines continued. “No one told you to stop smoking, you decided that on your own. Smoking again will exacerbate these other emotions that you’re feeling.”

“Why do you even care?” Gavin asked the door. “Because Tina told you to? Why would she even care? She doesn’t even want me around.”

A hand on the back of his head. Cold and solid and there, present. It made Gavin want to be sick. It didn’t but he wanted to pull away, be disgusted, because he was being touched by a machine, some parody of human emotions.

“I must apologize, it is due to my confessing to her that you were not invited. She does think of you as a friend and invited everyone else so that you would be guaranteed available for me to speak to you.”

Gavin glanced back at him. His LED was yellow and processing, thinking of the best thing to say, trying to understand Gavin’s reactions.

“What’s so important, huh? I thought that I just wasn’t wanted. That I was being abandoned by my friends, again!” he could feel the anger growing in him again, this time directed at Nines instead of himself. “You could have said whatever bullshit you wanted to at any time! Why’d you have to go tell Tina first? You don’t trust me? We’re supposed to be partners!”

Nines grabbed him by the edges of his hoody pulling him up and off of the floor, most of his weight against the door. He started to panic at the effortlessness that Nines had moved him. It was another testament of how inhuman Nines was.

Nines mouth was cold and too hard and there was no give to his lips, no finesse. It was the kind of kiss that came from a machine who had only watched others kiss and never tried to himself. And it was being pressed to Gavin’s mouth, making his toes curl as his hands came up to run through Nines’ hair. Gavin was following but he was leading as well, showing Nines how to kiss better, opening his mouth and biting at his lips and licking into him. He was heady with it, drunk, not thinking, and when he did think his hands went to Nines’ chest shoving.

“Woah! Woah woah what the phck are you doing?”

The LED was flashing and spinning, processing while Nines panicked. Red meant panicking, so did flashing, at least it did in deviants. Gavin didn’t know what it meant in a nonfeeling android.

“I must apologize, I must have incorrectly analyzed your desires.” Nines stated, eyes downcast, hand coming up to touch his lips and then to his LED, as if to hide it.

“You’re not a deviant! What are you doing kissing me?” Gavin shook his head, shook all of him. This was so sudden, he felt desired, wanted, and he knew that wasn’t right, that couldn’t be true.

Nines went stiff, LED stilling, half yellow half red. “I am a deviant.”

“No you’re not!” Gavin argued, “You’re stiff and weird and robotic! You can’t consent to things like kissing and romance and shit! You just follow orders!”

The LED started spinning again, pure yellow. “I was informed that you were a detective. I am concerned with your lack of detecting skills. I deviated thirty four days ago.”

Gavin’s mind raced. He didn’t want to do the math, not right then, but there was only one incident he could think of that could potentially deviate an android. They were on a case, and they’d gotten separated in chasing a subject. The building they were rushing through had been abandoned and in such disrepair that Gavin had fallen through the floor at some point, hitting his head hard enough to be knocked out. When he’d woken up Nines was so out of commission that he’d needed repairs. It had been a week until he’d seen Nines again. He hadn’t noticed any difference.

“You don’t act like a deviant,” he argued.

“I am not comfortable with deviancy. I did not want to worry any of our coworkers, or you, with my emotions.”

Gavin went closer to him, not feeling his steps. He ran his hand up the back of Nines’ neck, up to his hair again. The other one went to his jaw and he could feel Nines lean into it, even as he closed his eyes slowly. The LED switched to blue, his own hand finally coming down to rest on Gavin’s shoulder.

“So, you’re really feeling this shit? For some ugly bastard like me?”

“You’re not ugly,” Nines corrected. Gavin chuckled at how he didn’t correct the bastard part.

Thist time Gavin kissed Nines, getting up on tip toes to reach. It was smaller, more endearing, as Nines followed his instruction, learning quickly.

“You’re not just going to leave me, are you?” Gavin breathed against him. He could feel Nines’ arm snake around his waist, hold him close so that both of their fronts were tightly pressed together. He wished that he didn’t sound so emotional.

“As long as you want me,” Nines pressed a kiss to the side of Gavin’s mouth, “I’ll be yours. And not just because I am an android.”

At that Gavin smiled. He didn’t trust it, but for the moment the words were enough.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by: https://twitter.com/ArtsyNeurotic/status/1174977017227272193 but then my hands kept going.

Getting a rise out of Nines was hard. It happened, but it was usually when he was on low battery, when he couldn’t waste processing power on preconstructing and scanning and being a smart ass. It happened when he was vulnerable and quiet, when he tried to stay in stasis but couldn’t. 

Gavin had noticed it, the way that he was a bit more sluggish than he used to be, that there were days in which his LED fluctuated between red and nothing, battery saver in full effect. He didn’t know an android could get tired but the lower his battery went the less of his programs he ran. 

It was cute, in a way that Gavin wasn’t interested in reflecting on. He was big and intimidating but when he was tired he got outright dopey, he would touch more, he would lean his head on Gavin’s shoulder, he would rest with his eyes closed and his chin in his hand. 

He didn’t ask why Nines wasn’t getting all of his charge in. That felt too personal. Once he’d stayed in the bullpen overnight, working on some paperwork. He and the other few officers that worked the graveyard shift tried to be as quiet as possible. He didn’t understand it at first, but Nines and the three other androids that resided at the station were in their charging pods. While Kevin, Laney, and Bliss were all dead to the world when they charged, Nines woke up at the slightest sound. Gavin noticed it when he dropped a pen and the sound was enough to rouse his partner. When he picked his pen back up he saw Nines just standing there, in his pod, staring at him, LED pulsing. 

They didn’t talk about it. Gavin tried not to talk about anything that was personal, unless it was something that he could make fun of. Like how Nines’ smile looked like :] instead of a real expression or how he ran like a horse that had a base understanding of what would happen if it got caught lame. 

He should have talked to him about it though. He should have figured out why Nines didn’t stay in stasis like the other androids. 

They’d gone on a case and Nines’ LED was doing that blinking thing, in and out of red. He was slow and quiet, sticking to himself. He looked at the crime scene with his eyes but he wasn’t investigating. Gavin made a joke about pouring a cup of coffee over Nines’ head to wake him up. It was simple really, it wasn’t like Gavin needed Nines for this one. The guy made investigations a lot easier and faster and enjoyable but Gavin could still do the basics on his own. 

One shooter, small, two victims, Mr. and Mrs. Jones. There was a gun licensed in Mrs. Jones’ name that was now missing. There were scuff marks of luggage being dragged in by the front door and a neighbor said that their son, Michael, had just moved home after a fallout with his boyfriend. There had been a lot of arguing and, from the cross on the wall and the bible on the coffee table, Gavin could guess what they were about. Gavin’s gut and experience both said that Michael was the shooter. 

They didn’t have to go far to find him though. 

Michael had been hiding in the house when they arrived and, when they drew too close, Michael did what he could to protect himself. He shot Nines, twice, before the android even caught on that he was there. That wasn’t all though, he pounced on Gavin, whipped him against the forehead with the gun, punched with his right, whipped against his lip with the gun. Gavin brought up a hand, trying to fight back, trying to get Michael off of him, but then the kid bit him of all things. They’d fought for a while but, with so many blows to the head, there was no way Gavin was going to win it. 

He woke up a few hours later in a hospital bed, stitched and drugged and bandaged up. Nines had apparently kicked into gear once Gavin was unconscious and apprehended Michael, read him his rights, before he also passed out. Passed out was the human word for it, for androids it was hibernation, which was only a step above powered down. He could stay in hibernation for a while but he would run out of battery even in that mode. 

Gavin had the rest of the day off. He could go back to work the next day, as long as he took his medication as instructed. He would. He was good at taking his pills on time. People thought that he was looking for shortcuts, that he didn’t care about the rules, but that was just because he didn’t follow those pertaining to etiquette. If it was for the job, for his health, he’d do it without question. 

He came in bright and early, an extra shot in his coffee because he deserved it, whole milk too, in hand. Everyone was working, everything was normal, even Nines was back at his desk with his perfect posture. Tina though, she came by and clasped Gavin on the shoulder, teasing him. Chris gave him a wave. Even Hank gave him a little nod though his attention was on Nines, even while talking to Connor his attention was on Nines. 

When he got closer he could see why. While Nines’ LED wasn’t blank as often, it was still cycling from red to nothing, and he wasn’t interfacing with the screen. He was typing, the old fashioned way, and while he was typing far more words per minute than Gavin could try to count it was still strange because he had no need to type. 

He glanced up at Gavin for only a second. 

Then he looked up at Gavin again, eyes big, and he was getting out of his chair and over to Gavin, putting his hands in Gavin’s cheeks, looking him over. The blinking stopped as the red went solid for a moment and Gavin knew that he was being scanned. There was no emotion on Nines’ face, just those big blue eyes, and those hands mussing up Gavin’s hair. 

Those hands that were shaking. 

Gavin had seen Nines shake before. It always started at his hands. Gavin didn’t know what it meant, had never seen it go up past his arms before. Nines always left when it happened. Gavin just assumed it was some android thing. 

“Hey relax, Tin can,” Gavin tried to smirk but his cheeks were in the way from the pressure of Nines’ shaky palms. He set his coffee down on his desk. “I’m okay, see?” 

That broke Nines’ stupid plastic face, making it crack into that :] smile. His LED, for the first time in hat must have been a month, spun into blue. Gavin could only catch a glimpse of it though because Nines was wrapping his arms around Gavin’s shoulders, one hand cradling the back of his head, and he was being crushed against android chest. Right there, in the bullpen, in front of everyone, Nines had given Gavin a hug and it didn’t feel like he had any mind to let go of him. 

His whole body was shaking. 

“I’m okay,” Gavin repeated. 

Nines just held him tighter. 

It took a moment for sound to reach them, for the whooping and hollering to become apparent. Nines pulled away, LED back to red and nothing, his eyes down. He was still shaking. 

“Sorry,” he murmured, his voice that crushed velvet of gravel that he kept hidden away most of the time. It was like that stupid smile of his, not quite right, not what he wanted people to know about him, but it was quiet enough that he could speak to Gavin and know that the others wouldn’t hear. 

Gavin slapped him on the shoulder, “If you’re not careful there, Plastic, people are going to think you’ve got a heart in there or something.” 

He started to go back to his own desk, but Nines gripped his arm, just for a moment. “After work?” he asked and Gavin had to strain to hear him. “I want to. talk to you.” 

Gavin paused, just for a moment, before nodding his consent. 

The rest of the workday went over alright, just paperwork for most of the cases and a bit of a migraine. Nines did have to leave though, twice, once for the shaking and another time for a quick attempt at charging that didn’t seem to go anywhere. With all these people around, it was hard for him to do so much as close his eyes. It was at this second moment when Connor came up to Gavin’s desk. 

“I’m glad to see you alright, Detective,” he stated, “most wouldn’t be back to work after such head injuries.” 

“And here comes the headache,” Gavin groaned, leaning back in his seat, hands clasped behind his head. “What do you want Plastic Prick?” 

Connor tapped his fingers on Gavin’s desk, all in a row. “Nines does not want me to interfere with his affairs. I am, however, worried about him. While he may not want me to intrude, you may have an easier time of it.” 

The time for petty jabs was over and Gavin leaned forward, lowering his volume. “Any idea what’s going on with him?”

“He’s a highly advanced android, far more than I am. He’s also very sensitive. I fear that his inability to charge may stem from more than just hypersensitivity though. If he keeps going as he does, it won’t just be your face being rearranged and a short hibernation.”

Gavin gave him a nod, he hoped that was what this talk was meant to be about. Connor went back to his desk and, by the time Nines returned there was no sign that they’d even spoken. They went back to their uneventful workdays and Gavin took his pills on time. When it was time to leave they did so together, got to Gavin’s little beater of a car, and Nines didn’t try to advocate that Gavin should sit in the passenger seat and let him drive. 

Nines was unfocused on the ride, staring straight ahead at nothing. He didn’t speak. He just sat there like a big human shaped doll, shaking every once in a while. Gavin didn’t ask him about it. They’d get home first, then the could talk as much as they needed, get all of this sorted out. 

When they got to the apartment though, Nines didn’t move. He just sat there in the passenger. Gavin had to put a hand in front of his face, snap his fingers a few times, to get Nines’ attention. Only then did he get out of the car but, even then he had that glassy look to his eyes and leaned on the side of the car. Gavin took him by the elbow and lead him up the stairs, up to his apartment, and by then the shaking had settled all the way to Nines’ shoulders. Almost time for him to do his vanishing act. 

Gavin let him into the apartment and lead him to the couch, where he sat heavy and tired, bone tired, more tired than Gavin had been since college probably. He reached up, brushed that one purposefully imperfect lock of hair away from his face, and asked him the question he should have asked weeks ago. 

“Why the phck aren’t you charging?” 

Nines leaned his face against Gavin’s hand and he spoke louder now that he knew no one but Gavin could hear him. “Can’t stay in stasis.”

“It’s the noise, right?” Gavin asked, actually letting Nines rest against him. It felt good in a way that Gavin didn’t want to think about. “You keep getting woken up? God, you’re dummy thicc in the head, there are noise canceling headphones out there, they’re not going to mess with your ‘do.”

Nines bit his lip then and that was something Gavin had never seen him do before. He’d never seen Nines wrap his arms around himself and start to rock, start to have what could only be a panic attack. Gavin put his other hand out, the bandage of it making it so he couldn’t feel how smooth Nines’ skin was on that hand. 

“Don’t want. to talk. about it,” Nines admitted. “I want you to. know though. I wish I could just. touch you and. you’d know.”

“Yeah well I’m not a plastic boy like you, Pinocchio, you’re going to use your big words.”

Nines put a hand on Gavin’s thigh, his grip tight and vibrating. Gavin started to do his breathing exercises. He knew that Nines didn’t need to breathe, but he did the rhythm that he’d learned online in the middle of a week long panic attack back when he was new to the force. It helped, he was sure of it. The grip loosened at least. 

“I dream. Whenever I’m in. stasis I dream the. worst things, I. I dream of you dying. of me. being the one to. kill you or you dying. from my negligence. and there’s. Nothing. I can do. Nothing. Any sound that wakes me. is a. blessing.”

Of course. Nines had deviated on his own, hadn’t let another deviant help him with this and he was working for the DPD, where all of their lives where in danger at all times. Gavin had gotten hurt so many times in their partnership, Nines always getting it far worse than he did, but with how Nines hadn’t been charging there was a now very obvious fear that he could get himself killed out there. 

“That’s normal. We all have nightmares from work. Hell, some of us have nightmares from things worse than work. But you not resting is going to shut you down.”

Nines squeezed his eyes shut. “I know. I know.” 

Gavin leaned forward more, resting his forehead against Nines’ own cold one. He could feel the way that Nines inhales unnecessary breaths, trying to mimic Gavin’s pattern, how much they shuddered. 

“I know I’m an asshole and I know you’ve got no reason to think I wouldn’t judge you for this but just, know that I’m not, okay? I have nightmares too. But this is killing you. I need to know what I can do.”

Nines closed his eyes. Gavin noted that there was hardly any red in his LED. “Just be alive. Convince me. that you’ll stay alive.”

Gavin didn’t know how to do that. But he did. It was just a lot more intimate than what he’d ever thought he could do with someone, it was something he would do with a friend. Was Nines his friend? He didn’t know. But Nines was confiding in him and he wouldn’t even confide in Connor so that had to mean something. 

“I’ve got an idea. A phone charger would work, right?” 

Nines nodded, though it was slow. Gavin pulled his forehead away, looking him over. Nines looked like he was about to fall asleep or, more likely, into hibernation, at any moment. 

“You trust me?”

Nines opened his eyes and he stared at Gavin and it was about the most cognitive that he’d seen him in ages. 

“Of course.” 

Gavin moved his hands down, took Nines’ elbows in his palms and stood up, pulling Nines up with him. He walked Nines to his bedroom, which was in a constant state of disarray, and sat him down on the bed. Carefully he unwound his phone cord and, upon showing it to Nines the android pulled off his jacket, unbuttoned his shirt sleeve and folded it over the elbow. Gavin did his best not to blush or, even look at it because there was no way he was going to get flustered over his android partner’s bicep. A panel slid open and out of the way though and he held it out, let Gavin insert the plug. 

“Okay, you know what sleeping is, right?” Gavin teased, “Like, how humans sleep? Get on your side, you’re doing that tonight.”

Nines did as he was told but not without looking at him with confusion. “I don’t sleep.”

“You do too. I said so.” 

Nines lay down on his side, eyes closing, eyelashes against his cheeks. He didn’t argue. He didn’t even move when Gavin climbed in beside him, pulling off his hoodie and undoing his pants for a bit more comfort as he tried to spoon the gigantic android before him. It was a bit early for him and he was going to wake up starving, but that was fine. This was more important. He needed more rest anyway. 

“Can you feel me breathing?” 

Nines nodded. 

“Then you’ll know I’m here and that I’m safe. You don’t have to worry about me.” 

That stupid smile crossed Nines’ lips one more time before he did, finally, enter stasis.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by https://twitter.com/s_peachxv/status/1163627872281616386  
> I'm trying to keep these around 1,000 words. Oops

Gavin took off his shoes at his door, double checking to make sure he’d locked it up well. He didn’t want any interruptions. He knew that he was going to be noisy and he’d had a neighbor break into his apartment before because he made some noise that drew the wrong kind of attention. He didn’t think Nines would hurt him though, he was more the type to make Gavin use his mouth for things other than screaming and he would be made obedient. 

He took off his jacket tossing it over the back of the couch. Whatever Nines had planned, it must have been elaborate. Usually he would be out here by now, taking Gavin by the hands and going over all of the indecent things he was going to do to him. 

[BB9 4:13pm] Come home soon. I have something new for you.

That was the last text Nines had sent him, no further information given. Gavin had been antsy ever since. He’d gotten himself hard on the way home, just thinking of what it could be. He had a lot of toys, some that they hadn’t even used yet, so he doubted it was something like that. Perhaps it was a new dick? He knew some androids could mix and match but he’d never had that discussion with Nines, if that was something that he could or even wanted to do. That would be a weird one though, Gavin loved Nines’ dick the way it was. 

“Gavin?” came a voice from the bedroom. It was Nines’ voice but it was different than usual, a lot less authoritarian, a lot more nervous. It gave Gavin’s heart a jump, put it straight in his throat. There wasn’t much that made Nines nervous. 

“I’m here!” he called out, “You want me in there?” 

Nines answer was even more quiet, even more unsure. “Yes please.” 

Gavin was quick to pull off his shirt, leave it with his jacket, and head to the bedroom. Something about how scared Nines sounded made his heart race, made his cock settle uncomfortably in his jeans, softening. Nines was supposed to be the stoic one, it was why he was always in charge. Gavin liked topping, like dominating, but Nines was just so good at it he’d never thought to try it with him. 

He knocked gently on the door and he could hear a shuffling, fabric mostly. There was no vocal response though so he eased the door open. 

Nine was wearing his black turtleneck, all of the blankets, and a gentle blush. The blankets looked like they had just been thrown over him. He wasn’t making eye contact with Gavin, just staring at the floor. 

“You okay?” Gavin asked, climbing onto the bed. There was a bottle of lube and some smaller toys on the night stand. Whatever was going on, Nines must have been excited about it before Gavin got here. “You’re scaring me.” 

“I’m fine!” Nines said, too loud, too fast. 

Gavin took his hands in his own, rubbing his knuckles gently. “Hey, no need to be scared. What’s going on?”

Nines actually bit his lip at that, LED spinning red. He was looking down at the blankets. “I thought I would try something new but now I feel it was a bad decision, something that you would not enjoy.” 

Gavin raised a hand to his lips. Kissing it got Nines to look up at him, the blush brightening. Gavin was never this gentle when it came to sex. Whatever was going on though, it seemed that Nines needed him to take over and that was new territory, territory that Gavin desperately wanted to explore. He did note that Nines’ hand smelled slightly of lubricant. 

“I doubt that. If you’re involved and there’s sex, I’m going to be happy.” 

“It’s very different from what we usually do.”

Gavin kissed his fingers again. “There isn’t a thing we’ve done that wasn’t different from anything that came before.”

Nines didn’t say anything, not for a while, but he did eventually give in and state his attentions, with pulsing and spiraling at the same time. “I want to be taken care of. I am so large and intimidating and I just want to be the small one for once, I want to be given orders and told that I’m good when I succeed at them. I know it’s not something that I des-

Gavin interrupted him, pushing forward, swiping his hand across Nines’ jaw, pressing his lips to Nines’, kissing him gently and slowly, pressing his tongue against Nines’ teeth. Nines actually moaned against him and Gavin’s cock perked back up. Nines was always so quiet when they fucked and they weren’t even fucking and he was already this responsive. Gavin slid the hand from Nines’ jaw into his hair and grabbed it, just on the side of what would be painful for him, and pulling Nines’ head back. 

Nines was staring at him, eyes wide, flickering from his eyes down to his lips. 

“If you say you don’t deserve this I am going to have to do something drastic, do you understand?”

Nines’ lips tightened into a line and, ignoring the hold on his hair, he nodded. 

Gavin let go of him, petting him gently again, making a complete mess of his hair. “Alright baby, you just listen to Daddy, you got that?” 

He didn’t know if the ‘Daddy’ was a good idea, if any pet names would be good since the only ones he’d ever used before for Nines were insults or ‘Sir’. The blush spread from Nines’ cheeks to the rest of his face though, so it must have been a good choice. 

“Now, I’m going to take good care of you, you hear me?” A nod. “You’re going to take off these blankets, okay? I need to see what I’m working with here.” Another nod. 

Gavin got off the bed and let Nines push away the blankets. He was curled in on his side, hiding that big dick that Gavin loved so much. His hand went down to tug on his turtleneck, to hide his exposed thighs. Gavin was certain that Nines could crush his head with those thighs. 

“How rough do you want me?” Gavin asked, pulling off his jeans and boxers. He climbed onto the bed, onto Nines, straddling the thick pale muscle of his thigh. 

Nines raised an arm, putting his hand behind his head. He still looked nervous, his eyes stuck on Gavin’s cock instead of his face. “Fuck me however you wish… Daddy,” the last word came after long pause, sounding uncertain. “I can take it.” 

“But how badly do you want to punished for hiding from me?” 

Nines’ snapped to attention. “Please, I’ll be good. I’m just...”

Gavin bent forward, dragging his cock against Nines’ thigh as he reached down to cradle his face again. “You’re new to this, baby, I know it can be scary. You’ve got to trust me though, or I won’t know what you want. You have to tell me.” 

“I want to be your good boy!” Nines finally spat out. “I want to make you proud. I want to show that I can obey.”

Gavin let go of him, pressing a kiss to his unmarred temple. He rose enough that he wasn’t touching Nines at all, reaching up and taking the edge of Nines’ turtleneck in hand. They’d go slow today, close to vanilla. He didn’t know if Nines could cry but he read somewhere that androids could in order to clear their eyes of intrusions, the same way humans could. He wanted to make Nines cry. 

Nines grabbed a different edge of his turtleneck, trying to keep it in place. 

“C’mon, Baby, show me what you got.” 

Nines obeyed, lifting up his turtleneck, showing the stripe of pink lace that went over his hip. Gavin whistled, a long low wolf call, as he put his hand against it, pushing Nines’ hip so that he rolled over onto his back. He was wearing something new, that was what he’d texted Gavin about. Pink lace underwear trapped his dick against his skin, all of it transparent aside from the crotch piece. The color of it matched his blush perfectly. 

“Wow,” Gavin hummed, unable to stop himself. “What a pretty boy I’ve got here. You do this for me?” 

Nine nodded, the blush creeping down his chest. 

“Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.” He put a hand on either of Nines’ thighs, lifting and spreading them so that he could see better. “You use those toys to stretch yourself? Have some fun before I got home?” 

Nines nodded again. He was starting to look like a bobble head. “Yes, Daddy. Sorry Daddy. I just wanted to be ready for you.”

Gavin leaned down, licking a strip against the fabric, feeling the texture of it. He wasn’t a great judge of fabric but it felt expensive, like it would hold. He kept going, suckling and licking and making a wet patch in it, soaking Nines’ cock as Nines just sat there, staring, his eyes wide. 

“You should have asked. Now I’m going to have to punish you for that.” 

Nines’ shoulders rose and he turned his face to hide it in the crook of his elbow. 

“I know, I know, you didn’t want to disappoint me, but good boys ask before they fuck themselves. I’m thinking… yes, I’m going to have to fuck you without prepping you, see how good you were at getting yourself ready.”

Nines looked at him, nodding in a way that showed that he was ashamed. He was trying so hard to be a good boy, Gavin could tell. He ran his hands along Nines’ thighs, trying to console him without words. 

He lifted Nines’ panties up, not taking them off but relieving some of the pressure on his dick. He lowered his hands, spread the little pink hole that was hidden away between Nines’ legs, and rubbed his dick against it. He didn’t know much about topping an android, he never thought he’d get a chance to try. 

“Hand me the lube?” he asked. 

Nines didn’t hesitate then, grabbing the bottle and setting it in Gavin’s hand. He poured a generous amount onto his dick and onto Nines’ hole. He hoped that Nines was thorough. He didn’t want to hurt him. He wasn’t exactly small himself. 

Slowly, slowly, he pressed in. Nines inhaled sharply and held it, only breathing when Gavin started to rub circles into the meat of his thighs, inching in until he was seated all the way in. 

“You okay, Baby?” 

Nines nodded, fervently this time. “It feels… It feels so good. Please, let me make you feel good?” 

Gavin shook his head. “You’re so tight. You don’t have to do anything. Just be good for me and let me fuck you.”

Nines closed his eyes for a moment, bringing his hand up to his mouth, making a gentle fist. The first few thrusts, in and out, were so gentle they were a punishment for both of them. Then Gavin started to fuck him more earnestly, still not fast or hard but pulling out almost all the way before pushing back in, making a decent pace, pushing Nines’ legs further apart so he could watch his dick slide in and out, almost coming free a few times, through the soft pink material of the panties. 

“God you look so good. You’re so pretty for me, Nines. All of this is mine. No one else can ever see you like this.” 

Nines gasped and shifted his hand, covering his mouth, muting himself as Gavin picked up the pace a bit. 

“Almost want them too. Want to film you and break every porn sites algorithm. Want to fuck you like this in front of everyone. You deserve it, prettier than a picture. Prettiest boy I ever fucked.” 

There was a strained sound in Nines’ throat. 

Gavin let go of one thigh, used his hand to push Nines’ shirt up and over his pectorals revealing his thirium pump and his nipples. Gavin wondered, idly, what it would be like to finger the hole that the pump sat in, if he could get Nines off like that, but put his hand to Nines’ nipple, twisting and tweaking it. The sounds Nines made rose in pitch, even with how Nines hid them. 

“You like getting your nipples played with?” Gavin asked. 

Nines pulled his hands away from his mouth for just a moment, “Yes, yes, Daddy, they’re so sensitive.” 

“Good boy,” Gavin praised, rubbing that one harder while he pulled in snug to Nines’ body, his thrusts growing in speed as they lost length. “You know what good boys get?” 

Nines shook his head, even though he’d rewards Gavin for being a good boy more than a few times. 

“Good boys get rewarded.” 

He lavished the other nipple with his tongue, teased it with his teeth, sucked it into his mouth. He could feel Nines wriggle beneath him, back arching. His free hand was in the sheets, twisting them. There was so much attention being shown him and Gavin wondered if he’d missed something because Nines had never been so obviously sensitive before. 

Gavin pulled off with a satisfying pop, taking back his original position. He could feel his orgasm building, hoped that Nines’ was too. He shoved deep, faster now, and he could hear the rhythmic moans from under Nines’ hand. 

“Don’t be shy, Baby,” he urged, going fast enough that the sound of their bodies slapping together became violently audible. “C’mon, let me hear you.” 

At that Nines did hesitate but Gavin didn’t patronize him as he pulled his hand free so that it could join the other one in knotting up the sheets. His moans were loud angelic things and he tossed his head back to expose just an inch of his throat. Every thrust in had him singing, every drag had him sucking in another breath. 

“There we go,” Gavin praised, “So pretty for me Nines. You think you can come from this alone? You need me to touch your dick?” 

Nines threw his head side to side, “No, no, please, just make me come like this!” 

Gavin dragged a finger down Nines’ chest, circling the pump before continuing down to his belly button before stopping and moving both hands so that they were squeezing Nines waist. “Thank you for being honest with me Baby. I’m going to fuck you hard now, okay?” 

“Please, please, ah ah fuck, please Daddy fuck me, make me, ah, fuck, make me cum on, on, oh, on your fat cock!”

So Gavin did. If Nines were human there would have fingerprint bruises in his waist as Gavin grabbed him and pulled him close, fucked him hard and deep, focusing only on the pressure in his gut, in how good Nines felt, how he wanted to make Nines happy and content and so certain that he was a good boy, that he deserved all this and more. 

He could hear the ripping of fabric as Nines cried out, back arching again as he spilled onto Gavin’s chest, some of it shooting far enough to land on his cheek. His body tightened and Gavin came, feeling all of that pressure in his body shoot out into Nines’ quivering body. 

He let go, letting nines relax against the sheets. He didn’t pull out, just shifted, so that he could lay down on Nines’ chest, kiss at his reddened skin, tweak his nipples so that his body and hole jolted, hurting Gavin’s oversensitive cock with how he tightened. 

“Nines?” he asked, once he was able to breathe again. He looked up at Nines, who looked blissed out, staring up at the ceiling. “Hey, you still in there dipshit?” 

Nines swallowed and relaxed. “I’m sorry.” 

Gavin’s eyebrows twisted up in confusion and he pulled out, seeing his cum slip slightly out of Nines hole, slowly dribbling onto the sheets. 

“Sorry? What are you sorry for?”

Nines held up his hands, displaying the tor fabric of the sheets. “I couldn’t help it. I will replace them.” 

“Shit that’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” Gavin interrupted, mouth dry. 

He pushed up on the bed, catching Nines’ mouth in his, kissing him until he was breathless. Nines was so strong, could tear him apart so easily, but here he was, being soft and submissive and so so good for him. 

He decided to say it out loud. “Can’t believe what a good boy you are.” He smiled, pushing Nines’ hair back from his face. “Your so selfless and good for me, Nines. I love you so much.” 

Nines didn’t cry. He hid his face in Gavin’s chest instead, wrapping his arms around Gavin and pulling him close. He rocked against Gavin, shaking, as if he was crying, but there were no tears flowing. Gavin remembered the first time someone had told him he was a good boy during sex, how he’d just broken down. Part of him had been wanting to hear that for so long. And the first time Nines told him he was good he had been strong enough not try cry for an entire twenty minutes, which was enough for them to get cleaned up and for him to shoo Nines out the door. He had no idea that Nines could be needing that, could have doubts about how wonderful he was. 

“I got you,” he said, kissing Nines’ hair, “Take your time. I’ve got you.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by: https://twitter.com/MRearrea/status/1232759798229278720?s=20

It was supposed to be easy, but that was always how it was when something went wrong, wasn't it? It was supposed to be easy. These guys had been killing androids, mutilating them beyond recognition. It took techs to dig around in the remains to find out their model numbers. From the data they were able to pull out of the androids memory banks, they could assume that most of the damage occurred before death but all the memory was corrupted to the point that it was unusable. It wasn't hard to find out who it was. 

Mark and David Emery. They had gotten in trouble a few times over the years for damage to property and then assault when the terminology changed. They'd never done anything like this before. Gavin and Nines could handle them without much of an issue. Two on two and one of them an android. It would be easy. 

They hadn't expected that the Emery's would be working with an android, that they would be waiting and ready, that they knew how to take Nines down. 

Nines had fallen with a heavier thump than his weight should have been able to make, his entire body stiff and useless. Gavin didn't have time to turn, to shout, before their android was upon him, a box cutter in hand. He had a gun, he should have been able to fight back, to do something, but the android was fast and far too close. He was too jammed to properly aim. He was too terrified to even think of his gun. 

The Emery's grabbed Nines and booked it while Gavin had to deal with the remains of the android they had sicced on him. It's face had been roughly cut around the edges, all of the plastic cut off and it was all exposed wiring and teeth and moving parts. One of its arms had been degloved and he was certain its chest had had similar treatment. The body was completely androgynous, anything that could reveal gender or android type having been cut away. 

It sliced into him. The knife was sharp, blessedly so, so that the cuts didn't hurt too much, the gashes against his face would heal. He had to dodge and swerve, take the razor to his cheek in order to prevent it from entering his eye. A solid elbow to the nose knocked him back, his sinuses clear in agonizing emptiness as blood gushed from his nostrils. It gave him a moment to fall back, to stagger away, and he had space. He had enough space. 

He shot the android through the thirium pump. Something in him felt strange, felt wrong, as it fell to the ground. He'd never killed a human being, in all his years in the surface, but part of him, felt that strange cold trauma settle deep in his chest. It hadn't wanted this, he was sure of that, some frazzled and fractured programming from some sick fucks. 

He didn't have time to mourn though, didn't have time for empathy. He bottled it up, shoved it deep down into himself. They had taken Nines and he didn't know where they had gone with him. 

They were at the waterfront, a bunch of large garages for boat repairs and storage lining the pier. This was where their investigation had taken them, little bits and pieces of images, but nothing telling enough that they knew which of the many units the Emery's were working out of. They weren't even on the rental registry. 

Which meant he had to try all of them, starting at the ones closest, keeping on the alert, trying to hear Nines if he could say something, say anything. He wiped at his nose. He called for back up. He did the sort of thing that Nines would do. He ignored how his cheeks burned as his tears fell into his cuts. They were all starting to get agitated, started to feel now that the adrenaline of the fight was fading and the air was mixing with the narrow gashes. 

With the aid of a few more officers they were able to find the right unit. It took almost three hours to find him, having to pick too many locks and waste time searching through dark garages, hunting through boats of various sizes to see if there was a place to stash an android of Nines' size. They were going to have to fill in a lot of paperwork, for so many searches without warrants, but this was due cause. Gavin was shaking and breathing harshly, his heart rate spiking, he didn't care about paperwork right then. 

The garage that they found Nines in had cold blue lighting, making the air seem colder than it was, all of it coming from small LED lanterns that were hanging from hooks around the walls. There was no boat in here, though there were a few crates and a lot of tables, all covered in tools and puddles of what Gavin hoped was water. He was certain it was actually thirium, but that the parts that made it thirium had evaporated, leaving something unimportant behind. 

In the back there was a large boarded up wall, more hooks, curved and wicked, poking through. There were parts on there, clothes and limbs and wires and tubing, still stuck to hooks. There was also a torso, or most of one, one arm stretched out and pierced through on a thick peg, the other hanging down uselessly. Also useless, was the head, hanging down, the LED slowly fading in and out a blood red. 

It was the evidence room. Gavin remembered being there, seeing the parts of that PL600 shoved against the wall like some trophy next to the corpse of a Traci. They could still be accessed, still reacted to stimuli, but there was nothing to them anymore. It was fine at the time, was just storage for pieces, but now, Gavin vomited on the floor and hated himself for it. Hated himself for wasting time. 

Nines didn't even react as he drew closer, eyes closed. He looked dead. If it weren't for the slow way that the LED pulsed, he would have though that those three hours were far too long. They were but Nines was still alive, at least. 

There was movement, a shout, and Gavin had his gun up, spinning to see Officer Clark get barreled over by Mark Emery. The rest of the officers were in chaos, not firing but shouting orders, as David jumped out from among the crates and bolted for the door. 

"Go get those guys!" Gavin shouted at them, seeing how Mark followed his brother out the door and turned down the pier. "I've got this!" 

He watched them all run off, all leave him alone with Nines. There was no one else to save. Just the one android. Gavin turned back to him. Thirium was dripping out of him but it wasn't that fast. There may not have been much left. His nose had been bloodied as much as Gavin's but he had no way to wip it so the thirium had gone down his cracked and split lips to drip from his chin. There were cuts on his cheek and jaw, even one on his ear, and the arm that was hanging weakly at his side still had a screwdriver shoved deep into it. 

"Nines?" Gavin asked, voice quiet, hoping that he was soothing, that he was getting through somehow. "Hey, dipshit, you in there?" 

Nines answered with a long stuttering whir. It wasn't a sound Gavin had ever heard before. It wasn't a sound he ever wanted to hear again. 

"Don't worry," he prompted, gripping the screwdriver by the hilt. "I'm here. I got you. There's a whole team of techs on their way." 

He wrenched the screwdriver out of Nines arm and Nines sputtered, back arching and one eye glitchingly opening, the eyelid stammering as he tried to scream at the pain Gavin had caused him. All that came out was a breathy rattle. Then Nines fell back to his original position, thirium pouring down his once white sleeve. 

"Shh," Gavin urged, rubbing the back of his knuckles against Nines' cheek. "Shh, it's okay. It's okay. It's almost over." 

"Thirium levels at 28% and dropping," Nines stated in a colder and more clinical tone than he'd used in months, like he was nothing more than a computer. "12 minutes until shut down. 1.4% chance of survival." 

"Not true," Gavin growled, grabbing Nines by the jaw and turning him. One of Nines eyes was completely blue from thirium, the lighter blue iris seeming to glow blindly because of the contrast. The other searched his face for a moment before shutting once more. "Nines. The techs are going to be here in five minutes, tops. You're going to be alright, alright?" 

"14.7% chance of survival," Nines recalculated.

"100% chance of survival!" Gavin argued. 

Nines hand twitched but his arm was too damaged for him to lift it. Gavin removed a hand from his jaw to grab it, to bring that hand up and Nines just threaded their fingers together, humming in a low rumble in his throat, like an overworked fan. 

"Even if I were to survive I would be obsolete. Too damaged to function." 

"Don't care," Gavin argued, staring at how Nines' fingers were interlaced with his. He'd wanted, for so long, to reach across and grab Nines' hand. He'd wanted for so long to be able to touch Nines, to talk himself through his emotions, to be honest for once in his life. "I don't care. As long as you're alive and with me I'm happy." 

"My legs are gone," Nines reminded him, as if he needed the reminder. 

"We'll find them. You'll see. You'll be good as new you plastic prick."

Nines closed his eyes and this time it felt like there was a terrible sense of acceptance in it. Gavin didn't accept. He gripped tighter, leaned his forehead against his partner's breathed in shaky breath after shaky breath. 

"Don't you phcking leave me alone you piece of shit."


End file.
